The Many Printers Rule
This originally appeared as part of my Prime Lenses Newsletter. You can sign-up for a weekly update here.
A delightful side effect of making this podcast is that it has become commonplace to get messages from listeners through the week. Episodes go out on a Sunday morning, that’s when I post to socials and tag guests, so it’s nice to get little updates through the week as folks use Prime Lenses to get through dog walks or a run. Last week I received a message from Tom Hansen asking about printers that I’d mentioned on the podcast. Lucky for Tom, I don’t have a one printer rule like the one camera rule.
Printing is a wonderful part of photography that none of us probably do enough. There are so many ways to print now too that are really quick and easy. I have several little devices that can turn my digital images into physical keepsakes. I paid for all of them with my own money or was given them by Alice so for what it’s worth this is what I like and dislike about a few of them.
I managed to pick this up on eBay for about £60 including some old film that was still in it. Using the Polaroid app you choose a photo, place the phone on top and off you go. It’s pretty remarkable and while I don’t use it as often as some other printers it’s a way to generate pleasing and consistent Polaroids with combinations of glass that you can’t shoot natively. It’s my top vibes pick.
This was a printer Alice surprised me with a few years back. It uses a thermal process similar to something like the Canon Selphy. Operation is super simple. Charge, turn on, pair using the app and print. The quality is ok, not quite as good as the Selphy, but the pictures are business card sized stickers with a glossy finish so they can be put straight into a scrap book, on a laptop or wherever you want to put a sticker. The images you print can also be customised which the kids really like and it’s small enough to be taken on trips and because it’s not film you don’t have to worry about x-rays at airports.
I have the older version of this printer and really like it. Like the Polaroid Lab it turns your digital photos into Instax photographic prints. The output is more predictable than Polaroid, Instax remains the instant film I recommend to people just starting out with instant film as it’s way more tolerant of exposure to light and differences in temperature than Polaroid. Polaroid goes very blue if it’s cold for example.
This is the latest addition to my printer collection. It’s the cheapest and most low tech but might be the most fun. At around £25 this one only produces mono images from the free companion app.
You can tear a strip off straight away and give it to someone, it easily goes into a scrap book and I’ve traveled with this and a glue stick. I’m obsessed with how this printer makes my photos look when printing them.
It can also manufacture entertainment if you have young kids as they can colour in a freshly printed picture while you wait in line or have a coffee. It has been used a lot since I bought it a couple of months ago.
I am absolutely not qualified to review this printer. It is large and in charge, can print A3+ and uses 12 inks, all of which need replacing all the time but the quality is fantastic and I’m learning a lot by printing my images in colour and black and white. It’s really a treat to be able to see your images A3+ size. It’s also a great way to live with your work, like Kaj was saying in his episode.
