Snap judgments

Surveying the new novelty cameras

by Camille Dodero

You're going on vacation. You want to take pictures. But you don't want to be boring. Well, this is your year. In the wake of Polaroid's goofy, best-selling I- Zone instant camera, a host of new models have come out in that gray area between toy and serious equipment.

* There's something very bubblegum about Polaroid's I- Zone (above)-- maybe because Polaroid's billing it as the "official camera of Britney Spears," or maybe because the final result is a photograph the size of your thumb. The hot-dog-shaped I-Zone comes in bright red, green, or blue, and costs about $25 in drugstores. Take it to: Disneyland, Six Flags, or an 'N Sync concert.

* All curves, Polaroid's other new toy is the JoyCam (right), a less cumbersome version of the old-school Polaroid cameras. (It also takes smaller pictures.) The least joyful thing about the JoyCam is the price of the film -- a package of 10 exposures goes for $9.99 at CVS. Take it to: based on the name, we'd suggest Amsterdam.

* The Advantix Access is Kodak's fist-size disposable camera, available at Osco Drug for about $14. Commercials advertise the Access as being small and light enough to squeeze under a bikini strap. Take it to: beaches, boats, and tropical islands.

* Although we can't say what fits in your swimwear, we will tell you that the Advantix switchable (right), another disposable akin to the Access (and available at Osco for about 50 cents more than the Access), sports a viewfinder that shifts between standard and panoramic formats. Take it to: Grand Canyon, Top of the Hub, Niagara Falls.

* Another cool innovation in the world of low-tech, consumer-friendly cameras is the Action Sampler (below; available for $38 online at www.lomo.com, and at Urban Outfitters). Encased in transparent plastic à la the iMac, the palm-size Action Sampler shoots four images (through four separate lenses) onto each negative. The best photos turn out as kaleidoscopic, stop-motion renderings of moving objects. Point it at a stationary object, and you've got four little pictures of the same thing. Take it to: somewhere with a lot of sun. The Action Sampler doesn't have a flash, so you're out of luck if you're blessing the rains down in Africa.