If you told us ten years ago that people would soon carry tiny cameras and printers in their pockets, we woulda booked you into the closest mental institution. Okay, we have extremely powerful cameras built into smartphones, now what? Fujifilm has announced a true pocket printer called the Instax Mini Link to go with that camera.
Off-hand, the Mini Link has much more to offer than conventional Instax cameras. Y’know, the rounded, pastel-coloured instant cameras all the Insta influencers love showing off? Unlike those, the Mini Link isn’t an instant camera at all, but rather an instant printer.
In true Instax nature, pictures are printed on Polaroid-style Instax sheets. This means that you’ll need to make sure you have some backups on-hand.
Goodbye CMYK
It sports a variety of editing capabilities and photo-sharing features that makes it a bit more alluring than the conventional Instax. Firstly, you can print off your phone’s camera roll (which kinda removes the ‘Insta’ from ‘Instax’, but whatevs). You can link the printer to a bunch of phones and automatically generate a collage with one image from each. You can even control the editing app with physical motions with the printer.
While editing in the Mini Link app, you can tilt the Mini Link printer forwards or backwards to zoom in and out. You can also click the main button on the [rinter as a shutter button when taking pictures on your phone. So, it’s more of a multifunctional picture-taking tool than the conventional office printer.
We don’t have any local pricing or release dates yet, but we do know that these will come to SA. And when they do, you’ll be the first to know. [UPDATE: The Instax Mini Link printer will be available in South Africa from early November, retailing at R2,500].
