Capture and Freeze Your Special Moment: Instant Cameras and Photo Printers for Shutterbugs

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With the craze of smartphone photography and digital cameras, physical photos seem like relics of the past and instant camera obsolete in almost every way. Yet not everything we leave behind is worth abandoning. There is just an undeniable charm and whimsy to pressing the shutter button and watching an image develop right before your very eyes. Yes, film isn't just for old fogies and nostalgists. Lots of people enjoy snapping shots with a modern-day instant camera, as the compact and lightweight gadget hook up easily to your camera and deliver results that almost match digital in their immediacy.

From selfies to Sunday brunch, there's always a reason to celebrate with these instant film cameras and printers.

✎Instant Camera

Polaroid Snap Instant Digital Camera

Polaroid has filed for bankruptcy and sold off its name to a holding company, which also went bankrupt long ago. In 2017, the brand and intellectual property of the Polaroid corporation were acquired by the largest shareholder of the Impossible Project, which had originally started out by producing new instant films for Polaroid cameras and was renamed Polaroid Originals in September 2017. Thus, Polaroid's masterpiece, the instant camera, is still with us.

This is the camera that make instantaneous printouts to hold, clip and paste. This conveniently compact camera fits in your pocket and requires no messy inks or expensive toners. Users don't need to fiddle with a flash or focus the lens; just look through the pop-up viewfinder and click and out pops an adorable 2"x 3"sticky-backed picture ready to share with friends and family. Zink Zero Ink technology also helps save you a ton of money while keeping your memories alive. The 10-megapixel sensor captures millions of colors and tons of detail, while unique picture modes offer a variety of tones and filters to suit your mood. You can even add a 32-GB microSD card to save shots for social media or additional printing. However, the photo quality is not as good as that of a decent phone camera.             

Instax Square SQ6

This is a square format as a new addition to the instax series of instant camera lineup, allows users to enjoy on-the-spot photo printing. It is equipped with various features: with auto exposure control, the camera detects the ambient brightness and adjusts to provide the optimum shutter speed and flash light intensity, even in low light conditions. Three color filters that fit over the flash in orange, purple and green are included to add a pop of color to the images. Additionally, the camera can be set to a selfie mode which automatically adjusts focus and brightness. There is also a self-shot mirror attached to the side of the lens allowing you to check the shooting range.

Besides, SQ6 offers three unique modes, you can press the Mode button on the back of the camera which you can choose between: the double exposure mode allows two photos to be overlapped on a single film when the shutter button is pressed twice; the macro mode allows users to capture beautiful close-up images of subjects up to a minimum of 30cm and the landscape mode can be used to capture long-range impressive scenic photos.

LG PC389S

The LG Pocket Photo PC389S Instant Camera comes with a built-in printer. It uses dye-sublimation printing technology to output vibrant, high-quality prints onto 2.5 x 3.7" adhesive-backed paper in around 45 seconds. The PC389S shoots photos with pixel perfection as well. Each image encapsulates five million pixels of crisp detail to give a clear image with a radiant and full color spectrum.

LG's Pocket Photo App, available for iOS and Android, allows for image corrections to be made in addition to adding custom filters, decorations, and frames to your final photos. Connect the phone to your camera via Bluetooth or USB, and you're ready to print out your favorite pictures.

✎Pocket Photo Printer

Fujifilm SP-2 Instax Share

If you like the look of an old-school, tangible print but still want to keep shooting with your smartphone, the Fujifilm Instax Share SP-2 is the best instant printer available.

According to Fujifilm, the new SP-2 is faster, quieter, has better image quality, and a greatly improved Wi-Fi connection over the SP-1. The SP-2 has also a completely new design, featuring a silver or gold body with a sleek white casing and an internal rechargeable battery. 

You can easily connect your phone to the printer via Wi-Fi and share access to your library of images with the free Instax Share app, which you can then use to do some minor editing and add a filter or a custom border. Thanks to a new laser exposure system, the new SP-2 's high-resolution 320 dpi print will be ready in just 10 seconds. So not only does it print faster, the pictures are a lot better as well. As for image files, the printer supports JPEG and PNG formats.

HP Sprocket 100

The HP Sprocket is tiny and has a tiny output as well: the paper tray holds just 10 sheets, and the machine can only produce wallet-size, 2 x 3" photos. This is because it uses the zero-ink technology, which uses heat-activated paper instead of ink or dye sublimation. Zink doesn't produce the most detailed prints and some of the colors appeared washed out. However, the look of these filtered colors may appeal to you.

For a novelty printer, printing off social media photos has never been easier from your smartphone. Connect your social media accounts to the free-to-download HP Sprocket App and instantly turn those photos into colorful prints. You can customize your photos before you print with the HP Sprocket App to add fun text, borders, emojis, and more. Add a pop of personality for snapshots and stickers that are totally and uniquely you. 

I liked the HP Sprocket's simplicity and fun design, even if it's tough to come up with practical reasons for having it around.

✎Wireless Compact Photo Printer

Canon SELPHY CP1300

With SELPHY CP1300, Canon added another option to the battery-powered portable mini-printers market segment. With this lightweight, mobile and Wi-Fi-enabled printer, sharing memories in real-time can be quite easy.

The Selphy CP1300 is a wireless printer: it comes with a larger 3.2" tiltable LCD display, an improved user interface, improved image search with a date filter, the ability to print 2 x 6" photo strips and a Party Shuffle mode that is designed to allow Wi-Fi connected users to connect multiple compatible mobile devices to the same printer and create a print layout made by combining images from everyone. The printer also offers the option to connect an external battery, making it that much more portable.

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