Polaroid Snap Instant Digital Camera (White) with ZINK Zero Ink Printing Technology

by people ...

Product Specifications

Striking Minimalist Design is Reminiscent of all Classic Polaroid Instant Cameras
Compact Size Slips Neatly Into Your Shirt Pocket; Price is Equally Wallet-Friendly
10-Megapixel Sensor Captures Brilliant Images; Micro SD Slot Holds 32GB (Max)
Integrated ZINK Instant Printer Produces Full-Color 2x3” Prints in Under 1 Minute (Available Separately)
Adhesive Back Makes for Easy Posting; Digital Copy is Saved for PC/Social Media

Product Description

Color:White | Style:Base Product Description Color: Blue Nostalgic Polaroid instant photography in a modern package. Polaroid Snap is the brand’s newest addition to its expanding instant digital camera line, delivering signature Polaroid instant simplicity and spontaneity in a pocket-sized form factor and at an affordable price point. In addition to its compact footprint and classic Polaroid instant camera experience, it combines digital imaging with Zero Ink printing. This enables you to easily print and share physical photos at the push of a button, while saving all your images for easy uploading Striking Minimalist Design True to the rest of the brand’s modern line, the Polaroid Snap camera’s minimalist design features an updated look that incorporates a number of design elements of legacy Polaroid instant cameras, such as the iconic Polaroid Color Spectrum. 10MP and Up to 32GB Instantly share your life with loved ones in vivid color with features such as a 10MP sensor, a micro SD card slot (32GB max), various capture modes and photo booth mode, Polaroid Classic Border Logo printing format, and an instant selfie self-timer. ZINK Zero Ink Printing The integrated ZINK printer enables you to instantly print full-color, smudge-proof 2x3” prints automatically when an image is captured - without ink cartridges, ribbons or toner. You can even shoot new images while the Polaroid Snap is printing. Post Anywhere The 2x3” prints are ready in under a minute, and their adhesive backing makes for extra fun and easy posting on most surfaces. Your photos are also saved on the Polaroid Snap for easy uploading to your computer and social media platforms

Product Reviews

Instant Gratification! All the Details You Need to Know

Polaroid is the undisputed name associated with instant pictures so it is not surprise that they have come out with a compact and cute instant print version as their latest product. The Snap is just that, pictures in a snap. But there is a lot to know about this very simple camera.What you GET in the box:—> Snap camera—> Wrist strap—> Micro USB charging cable—> Small illustration for paper placement and powering on.What you NEED before you can use this:—> micro SD card (up to 32 GB) - it will format your card so don’t use one with other files on it.—> Polaroid 2x3 inch Premium ZINK Photo Paper (30 Sheets) - Compatible With Polaroid Snap, Z2300, SocialMatic Instant Cameras & Zip Instant Printer (premium) or 2x3 Inch ZINK Photo Paper for Pogo Cameras and Printers (Pack of 100!) (basic). The premium paper prints much better! You CAN take pictures without the SD card but you must have paper. OR you can take pictures without the paper but you must have an SD card.The quick rundown: This is a 10MP camera that takes photos and saves them to the SD card AND prints them out onto 2x3 mini prints (optional as stickers) without the addition of ink or anything else. It is compact and will fit in a pocket. It includes a flash and a removable MAGNETIC lens cap. The pictures are good and are better when printed on the premium paper. But you also have the image on the SD card as long as it is loaded.The rest of the story:==> A few years ago, I purchased a Polaroid camera for my daughter. It ran about $65. I also bought a POGO Instant Printer (that uses the same ZINK paper) for about $40. Between the two, it was the same price as this camera and the Snap is more convenient to carry.==> There are no instructions with the camera other than how to push the viewfinder up to power on and how to load the paper. It took some trial and error although it would seem like it would be intuitive to operate.==> Some of my prints have streaks through them when using the basic paper.==> The premium paper is running about 50¢ per piece. The basic paper is about 30¢ a piece - pricing depends on the volume as well.==> You are looking at your shot through a small viewfinder on top of the camera. There is no LCD display and no way to review photos after taking them other than the prints or putting the SD card in your computer.==> The digital photos are good for up to about a 9x12 print at 300 dpi.==> The camera lens cap is magnetic - very cool - but you won’t know it is on when looking through the viewfinder. It may be easy to lose if you don’t keep it in a pocket and remember to put it back on.==> You can take color or black and white and a vintage style to mimic the old Polaroid prints.==> There is no way to stop it from printing a picture as long as there is paper in the camera. If you don’t want a print, take the paper out.==> There is no zoom or wide angle, you get what you get and the viewfinder is not an exact image of the picture - it might be off a bit.==> There is a tripod mount and a 10 second timer (which you can also activate by holding down the shutter.==> The battery charges quickly and has lasted well so far.==> You don’t get the same shutter sound as other digital cameras so sometimes it can be difficult to know if you took the picture. The sound you hear is subtle.==> The paper goes in the camera with the glossy (print) side facing OUT, it holds 10 sheets at a time.==> There is a cute feature, next to the color selections, that allows you to print with the familiar white border of the old Polaroid snaps. You can turn this feature on and off.Our local camp also uses a Polaroid camera and POGO printer to takes pics of their campers for a “Passport.” This kind of camera eliminates the additional steps and could make the process quicker and more fun for the campers.The bottom line: This snappy little camera is best in good light situations. It will not replace a good digital camera for quality of photos and features but it will provide a fun way to capture and print on the spot photos. It is great for parties, identification photos, or just for fun with friends. The paper can be costly and the prints are small. But the instant gratification and fun of watching the photo print on the spot is worth it.A unit was provided for evaluation and review.READ MORE

What it is and isn’t and what you need to buy before you can use it

The Polaroid Snap is a fun, retro, instant print camera with nostalgia and novelty value. You cannot use it as an instant print camera without Snap compatible ZINK Photo Paper, and it does not come with so much as a single piece of ZINK (zero ink) paper, so you should order some when you order a Snap.For someone who is in the market for a fun, retro, instant print camera with nostalgia and novelty value that they can take to parties, etc., the Snap is cool enough that despite the fact that you have to buy a pack of ZINK pape in order to use it as it’s meant to be used, I can easily rate it 5 stars. But keep in mind that I’m a grandpa who has still has photo albums filled with Polaroids that I took in the sixties. And when I look at what comes out of the Snap, I definitely get the nostalgia effect, especially when I select the print option that puts an old-fashioned Polaroid border around the print. The print quality itself adds to the nostalgia, in that the print quality is apparently designed and intended to be reminiscent of original Polaroid prints.The Snap has no built-in memory, but it does have a slot for a microSD card. Technically, if you put a microSD card in a Snap, you can use the Snap without ZINK paper, and you can access the images by putting the microSD card into another device or by connecting the Snap to a computer with the included USB cable (which is also the charging cable). But based on my experience, I’d say there’d be no point in using a microSD card in the Snap unless you are also using ZINK paper. Let’s say that you’re at a party and you take a Snap shot of someone and give them the instant print. If you have a microSD card in your Snap, you can later view that image on a computer or another device, you can upload it to the web, and you can print it out using a printer other than the one that’s built into the Snap. (I know there are such things as ZINK printers and it may be the case that it’s possible to print Snap shots saved to microSD on ZINK paper in ZINK printers but I have no idea if that’s the case. I had to purchase a package of ZINK paper in order to use the Snap so I could review it - you cannot review an instant print camera if you don’t first use it to create some instant prints - and the ZINK paper doesn’t come with instructions, other than a less-than-informative image on the foil packages that hold the ZINK paper, and I cannot find instructions on the ZINK site. I had to watch a YouTube video to make sure I was loading the ZINK paper into the Snap correctly. I’ll explain the process below.)The Snap has no display and thus there is no way on the Snap itself to view images you’ve taken that have been saved to a microSD card. You can only view such images by connecting the Snap to a computer or by removing the microSD card from the Snap and putting it in a device that has a display. Again, the Snap is not designed to be a highly functional digital camera; it’s designed to be a Polaroid instant print camera with fun, retro, nostalgia, and novelty value, and it certainly does have all that going for it.The ZINK paper used in the Snap measure 2x3 inches (50mm x 76.2mm, which is business card size. (Imagine if Patrick Bateman had a Snap.) For comparison purposes I’m looking at one of the Polaroids that I mention above that I took in the sixties, and the paper measures 3 ¹⁄₂” x 4 ¹⁄₄” (88.9mm x 107.95mm) and it has the classic Polaroid white border, which reduces the image itself to 3 ¹⁄₈” x about 3 ¹⁄₁₆” (79.375mm x 77.7875mm). You can get the classic border on Snap prints, and with the border the Snap print on ZINK paper image itself measures 2 ⁷⁄₁₆” by a hair under 1 ³⁄₄” (61.9125mm x 44.45mm).Next to the button on top of the Snap that you press before taking a shot if you want to add a border to your print (the border option does not get saved to a microSD card), is a button that you press to select color print, sepia, or black and white.The Snap has a lens cover that is held on magnetically. There is no way to attach it to the Snap, e.g., so that it can be removed from the lens and left hanging from the Snap, and I would imagine that some Snap users will misplace their Snap lens covers. And unlike digital cameras that warn if not prevent you from taking shots when the lens cover is on, if you forget to remove the Snap lens cover and you press the shutter button and you have ZINK paper in the Snap, it will print a black print and you’ll be out the fifty cents or so US that piece of ZINK paper cost you. I speak from experience as I did this twice.One thing in particular that I don’t like about the Snap is the view finder, which also functions as an on/off button. Gently press an edge of the folded-down view finder and it pops up and the Snap comes to life, as indicated by tiny flashing LEDs on the back. It’s way too easy to accidentally cause the view finder to pop up, and as I say, when it does, the Snap turns on. I wouldn’t even consider tossing the Snap into a bag without it being in some kind of protective case, simply to make sure that the view finder doesn’t accidentally pop up. (I’d also be afraid that the lens cover could easily get knocked off in a bag. the Snap does not come with a protective case, so that’s something else some owners may need to buy. A case that has interior dimensions of at least 4 ⁷⁄₈” x 3 ¹⁄₄” x 1 ³⁄₈” or 123.825mm x 82.55mm x 34.925mm should work.)Another thing I don’t like is that the Snap, like so many gadgets with built-in rechargeable batteries these days, does not have a user-replaceable battery. The Snap is one of the many electronic devices that may end up in the piles of electronic junk that William Gibson presciently envisioned in his 1984 cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer. C’est la vie.As I mention above, ZINK paper (or at least the 30-pack I purchased that I link to above) comes with minimal, unhelpful instructions in the form of a simple image. Here’s how to correctly load ZINK paper into the Snap: ZINK paper ships in packs of 10 in sealed foil packages; thus a 30-pack consists of 3 foil packages, each of which has 10 sheets of ZINK paper in it, and you can load up to 10 sheets at a time in the Snap. In each 10-pack is a blue card that has bar codes printed on it. This card must be inserted into the Snap along with the ZINK paper. If your Snap is on a table face down (lens cover down), you open the back, and put the pack of ZINK paper plus the blue card into the open back of the Snap with the blue card facing down (toward the lens and table). The first time you take a shot, the blue card is going to come out of the Snap before the first piece of printed ZINK paper comes out. (And as long as you’ve remembered to remove the lens cap before taking your very first Polaroid Snap shot, that piece of ZINK paper should have an image on it.) It might be a good idea to save the blue card. Again, here is where some actual instructions from Polaroid and/or ZINK would come in handy. I found a comment by one user of a Polaroid Pogo, which is an earlier version of the Snap, wherein he said that when some prints weren’t coming out good, possibly because the ZINK paper he was using was old, he ran the blue card through the Pogo a few times and this made a positive difference in the print quality.There was no user manual in the Snap I received to review, but there is one in PDF format on Amazon’s product page under Product Details, and I thank Krishna for pointing this out in a comment to my review.The Snap can be mounted to a tripod and the small, inexpensive JOBY GorillaPod Original is a perfect size. I own one and have used it with the Snap.I’ve posted three photos that I hope will be somewhat helpful. In one I simply show the Snap with two photos printed on ZINK paper, one of which has the optional old-fashioned Polaroid white border around the image. Then, to show you that the Snap is not designed to give us the kind of digital (non-printed) image quality we’ve come to expect from phones and other devices, I took two photos with the same lighting, one with an inexpensive Nokia Lumix cell phone, and the other with the Snap. I cropped the photos but otherwise left them unretouched. And you can hopefully see why you would not want to rely on a Snap for high quality digital images.If you want to buy a Snap as a gift for someone, keep in mind that they won’t be able to use it as it’s intended without some ZINK paper, which you will have to purchase separately. The Snap I received came charged and ready to take shots, so if a gift recipient gets a new Snap and paper at the same time, they should be able to start taking Polaroids within minutes. (I didn’t know that the Snap would come without any Zink paper at all, so I had to order some and wait a few days before I could use the Snap as it’s intended to be used.)It’s now late October and I look forward to using the Snap when I accompany my grandchildren when they go trick or treating on Halloween. And I’m sure the Snap will be great fun at holiday parties. Be sure to pocket the cap so you don’t lose it, and if you think you might give prints away and you want to be able to see the shots you’ve taken, be sure to put a microSD card in the Snap.I should mention the focus of the Snap: there is none. No focus, no zoom, just like early Polaroid cameras. That’s part of the charm. And the viewfinder is just adequate for framing a shot. If you want to do a selfie or otherwise include yourself in a photo, there is a 10 second timer button, but you’ll have to first use the viewfinder to make sure you’ll be standing within the frame.I received a sample Polaroid Snap Instant Digital Camera to review.(Patrick Bateman is the antihero and narrator of Brett Easton Ellis’s novel, American Psycho, whose character is portrayed by actor Christian Bale in the 2000 film adaptation. The business card scene in the 2000 movie is well-known enough that many readers will get my gratuitous reference, but many won’t, thus this note.)READ MORE

Needed a camera

Bought for my daughter… she loves it.

Polaroid Snap Instant Digital Camera for children/school

Very small business card size photos. Advise buying better expensive instant digital camera that give larger photos.

Five Stars

great product

Two Stars

The picture you take is not what prints out.

not very sturdy

it got bumped in my camera case and now it wont capture the image. the comes film out white and ive gone through 3 packs trying to figure out the problem.

So far so good. Bought for my 11 year old daughter

So far so good. Bought for my 11 year old daughter. Would’ve liked included instructions, but they can be found online

Two Stars

Low resolution pictures

Five Stars

great camera, only issue is with dark areas.

LOVE this cam!

I LOVE this camera. I was regretting not getting the newer version at first, trying to be cheap before a vacation, but I do not regret buying the Snap now.