If you are are like me you may have seen ads for those mini printers that use no ink and print on receipt paper, mostly geared towards scrapbookers, artjournalers and planners. As someone who loves instant photography (everything from Photobooths and toy cameras to Polaroid) it definitely caught my eye. I have a polaroid pogo printer that uses the zink (zero ink technology) paper to print color photos already. Knowing that these new printers prints on receipt paper (probably a thermal process) and how eventually receipts fade out or can easily get destroyed by heat, I’ve never been fully tempted. Then I saw a tiktok where someone shared the best Christmas present they got for their kid was a camera with this same printer built in.
I know the kids loooove when I bring my Polaroids around, but I also understand the film can be expensive. But since these print on receipt paper you can buy the rolls of paper cheaply and print tooooooonns of pics. I decided to get one for these printing cameras for Easter and I’m so excited to see what pictures they take. Most of them have their own digital cameras that they use and love already, but this one will allow them to print their pics out. There are a lot of different makers for this type of camera, with really cute product designs, but after shopping around and reading reviews I decided to get this one that has an LCD AND the lens rotates 360º so they can take selfies and see themselves on the screen. It has a memory card and can record video as well, so the pictures/videos can be backed up on the computer with the help of their parents. This model doesn’t have it, but I saw some that came with filters and borders that you can add to the pictures (playing with it again, we found it does actually have fun borders to add to the pictures).
I opened it up to preload it and test it out and I’m glad I did because it needed to be charged (usb). Of course I had to test print a couple pics and I was very pleased with the results. Pics are only black and white, and the quality can vary. The 1st pic I took was of Bishop and he was backlit in a window so he was kind of grainy. The second pic I took was of our mug shelf and it was evenly lit and looked AMAZING. The third pic was a selfie in a window and my face was blown out on screen and in the print. But if you are the type to embrace the imperfect, it will be great.
Now, after all that, I’m sold and I’m thinking I need to buy one for myself, or maybe one of the standalone printers?
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When I gifted them the camera I also gave them a little book and a tape roller so that they can stick all the pictures they take into it (and hopefully not let the stray pictures that can look like receipts) float around the house.
