Polaroid Snap review: Photo stickers on the go for less than S$1 a pop
SINGAPORE — Remember the Neoprint craze that hit Singapore in the late ’90s? The Polaroid Snap brings some of that nostalgic, instant photo-sticker fun back without you visiting a photo booth. The Snap is portable, pocket-friendly and can print 5x7.6cm sticker prints on the go. Unlike other instant cameras or printers, the Snap slides easily into a clutch or a small pouch.
SINGAPORE — Remember the Neoprint craze that hit Singapore in the late ’90s? The Polaroid Snap brings some of that nostalgic, instant photo-sticker fun back without you visiting a photo booth. The Snap is portable, pocket-friendly and can print 5x7.6cm sticker prints on the go. Unlike other instant cameras or printers, the Snap slides easily into a clutch or a small pouch.
The 10-megapixel Snap comes with a fixed focal lens, an automatic flash that cannot be turned off and a built-in battery, so it is not going to be a digital point-and-shoot camera replacement.
It will not give you fantastic photos or prints, but it will give you oodles of fun.
The Snap oozes charm if you are a fan of the toy camera aesthetic. That is not to say it is poorly or cheaply made. Its minimalistic design is well thought out, right down to its comically large red shutter button, and inconspicuous yet ingenious magnetic lens cap. It also comes with a microSD card slot (supports up to 32GB) to save your photos — you can continue taking them even if there is no more printing paper left — and is chargeable via a micro-USB port.
Lining the top of the camera are controls that may befuddle a newcomer. You are advised to read the user guide online (no, it is not available in the set).
Sitting in the middle of four controls — colour, sepia or black and white, add a white border, and a 10-second timer — is a pop-up optical viewfinder that doubles as a power button.
The back of the camera is mostly occupied by the ZINK paper tray, which holds 10 sheets of ZINK adhesive-backed paper.
It takes approximately 35 seconds for a photo print to complete.
Our photos generally turned out fine, if a tad saturated, with an occasional blue tinge. One hiccup, though: On a particular test run with the sheets running low in the tray, our last three prints came out incomplete with thin white bars on the left side.
Because the Snap is not the type of camera that one would go trigger-happy with, battery life is decent. The camera lasted without going flat while we were using it during our test runs over two days.
Cheaper than most point-and-shoot cameras and S$100 less than other instant cameras, such as the Lomo’Instant Wide, the Polaroid Snap makes for an affordable, fun gift.
With the Polaroid ZINK paper available in either S$29/pack of 30 sheets or S$44/pack of 50 sheets, it is also much cheaper than the Fujifilm Instax Wide film, which goes for S$18.80/pack of 10 sheets. However, if you do not mind waiting, the Polaroid Snap+ announced at CES 2016 will come with an 8.9cm LCD touchscreen, an upgraded 13-megapixel sensor, 1080p video recording capabilities and the ability to queue up to 10 images for printing. It will be available in Q4 this year in the United States and, according to Wired.com, will likely cost US$40 (S$56) to US$50 more than its predecessor.
The Polaroid Snap is available in four colours (white, black, blue, red) at Cathay Photo outlets (Peninsula Plaza and Marina Square) for S$198.
Polaroid Snap sample photos: