Love to take a Polaroid picture? Or love when Taylor Swift posts an Instagram photo of a Polaroid with her model friends? I know, the later sounded too Meta. Fujifilm Instax has brought the immediacy and fun of instant photography back with a line of cameras that can instantly print your favourite moment. The company has taken it to the next level with the Canada launch of the Fujifilm Instax Share SP-2 Printer on Thursday, July 14, in Toronto. I had the opportunity to check out this new gadget … and I want one.
I’ve been contemplating buying a Fujifilm camera for some time now. They are so freaking cute. Yes, I agree that’s not the best reason for buying something but it happens. One of my restraints for buying one is that my obsession of capturing the moments (all the time), in the long run, might cost me too much money in printing. Being at the event, I got carried away with printing my favourite pictures straight off my phone. That’s right, directly from my phone. I didn’t need the Fujifilm camera (even though, they are so adorable) to print pictures. Use your phone to capture photos, then print them—voila—you can join Taylor Swift’s Instagram squad. Also, if you a Fuji Instax camera but want to print more copies, the printer does can do that too. Especially, when all your girlfriends pose for the picture and likely ALL of them want a copy. The Instax Share SP-2 will print photos directly from the app. BOOM. I’ll warn you, it’s highly addictive. Perfect for any party! Here’s a video of me at the Instax event in Toronto having a blast testing out this new printer.
At the event, which was located in at Angell Gallery, (12 Ossington Avenue—great venue to showcase the product as it brought a “photography” vibe to the preview) Fujifilm had 8 exclusive photography sets created by Kastor & Pollux in collaboration with photographer Pat O’Rourke. People went to the various stations to snap poses and then print them.
Best Buy offers a range of cameras from the Mini 8 in light blue (I love) to the WIDE 300 Instant (I want) and will soon have the new SP-2 printer. At the event, I got the chance to test the Instax Share Smartphone SP-1 photo printer and the SP-2. Both are awesome, work seamlessly with the mobile app and are really fun. However, the SP-2 is about 30% faster and the picture quality is better. My first impression of the SP-1 was that the speed was fine, no issues. But when you have a group of people waiting to print their pictures, it’s nice to have added speed. It did feel like the SP-2 was faster. As for quality, SP-2 was better. Here I printed the same photo for the two printers. There is a difference. My face is less washed out in the SP-2 version, non? At this point, I have no clue on price point for the SP-2. If it’s within your budget, then I’d recommend getting the latest edition. But the SP-1 works great too. The newer printer is also stylistically modern and classy. It comes in a few colors such as gold and gray.
The Fuji Instax app is easy to use. The best part is that you can edit your photos with a few filters, rotate images, as well as create photo cards (with Birthday, Valentine’s, Christmas templates).
Are you a fan of instant printing? When you get your own SP-2 printer, what will you print?
