Memories are made of this

Fujifilm brings instant photo printing technology to mobile phone users with the launch of its Instax Share SP-1 printer.

The printer lets mobile users print Fujifilm’s unique Instax mini films, which have until now been restricted to users of Instax cameras.

Better still, several fun features have been added via the app.

Both Instax Share, available for both Android and iOS smartphones, and the printer are intuitive to use and let you have fun with the instant photo printing.

The printer is easy to carry around too, running on two CR2 batteries, measuring a tiny 101.6 x 42 x 122.5 mm and weighing just 253 grammes.

The SP-1 is capable of printing 62 x 46mm (2.4 x 1.8 inch) photo in 254 dpi resolution and 256 levels per colour (RGB).

You load the film chamber with a 10-pack of mini films, click is closed and you’re ready to print.

The camera shows how many films are available on an LED readout, and also tells you how much battery you have available.

The SP-1 is connected to your smartphone with a Wi-Fi connection and the first thing you need to do is download the app. n your smart phone. When you order a print of photo from your phone, the app will connect to the SP-1 and you’ll have to enter the Wi-Fi password for the first use only. Passwords can be changed as often as you wish.

The app lets you do some basic editing functions, such as rotating the image, resizing it to fit the printing frame, and applying one of the three filters – auto, sepia and black & white.

You can select from several templates to jazz up your photos, including the standard one that allows you print your photo in a rectangular shape.

There are also square templates that allow you to crop your photos to fit the frame with colour bars above and under it. Some of the square templates even let you add text on a colour bar under the photo.

I had fun with the Real Time Template. You capture the shot on your phone and the template adds the date, place, weather, temperature and humidity to frame.

The Limited Edition template is also run. It’s designed for printing a group photo and includes the running number on each photo. For example, when you order a print of a photo of three persons, it will print the numbers 1/3, 2/3 and 3/3 on the photos consecutively. 

The app also allows you to print photos from your Facebook and Instagram pages. Again, they will come with captions of the photos, the date they were uploaded and the number of times your friends have clicked “like” button to see them,

There are also seasonal templates, including Best wishes!, Happy birthday!, Mother’s day, Anniversary!, Date&Message, and Party!

After you have added a temple and added text, you can also upload the edited photo back to your social network page. I tried but was unable to use this feature with the Real Time Template.

Operation was fast and easy during the test. It took about 11 seconds to send a photo from smartphone to printer. We waited another 16 seconds for the printer to encode the photo’s detail onto the instax mini film. Do be aware that when the film first comes out, it will look blank. The picture and colours gradually appear over the course of about one minute,

You can also hit the reprint button if you want another printing of the last photo.

The photos were sharp and clean with a pleasing glossy look. The colours were good but seemed a little faded compared to those on the computer screen. It’s probably better to print only bright and colourful photos.

The SP-1 also supports three models of Fujifilm cameras – X-M1, X-A1 and XQ1. You can make Instax prints by sending the photos directly from one of these three models. Fujifilm says it is developing firmware to allow other Wi-Fi-enabled models to order instax prints directly as well.

The Instax Share SP-1 printer retails for Bt5,990. A standard pack of 10 Instax mini films without cartoon pattern retail for Bt270 while a pack of mini film cartoon retails goes for Bt300. The cartoon patterns include Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, Stitch, Toy Story, and Fairly. There are also Instax mini film seasonal patterns, which retails for Bt270 each.

 

 

Key specs:

Recording method: 3-color (RGB) LED exposure with liquid-crystal shutter

Film: Fujifilm Instant Colour Film “instax mini”

Photo capacity: 10 prints / pack

Image size: 62mm x 46mm

Supported image size: 640 x 480 dots

Printing resolution: 10 dots / mm (254 dpi)

Printing levels: 256 levels per colour (RGB)

Interface: Standard compliance: IEEE802.11b/g, Operation frequency: 2412MHz to 2462MHz (11ch), Access method: Infrastructure

Supported image format: JPEG

Printing time: Image recording - photo output (fed out): Approximately 16 seconds.

Printing capacity (when CR2 lithium batteries are used): Approximately 100 prints

Power supply: Two CR2/DL CR2 lithium batteries, AC power adapter

Power consumption: 2.5 W

Dimensions: 101.6mm x 42mm x 122.5mm

Weight: 253g (without battery and film pack)