Polaroid Two - Polaroid Instant Digital Camera

Firebox are taking orders for the new Polaroid Pogo Instant Digital Camera and Printer called the Polaroid Two, it uses the Zink printing technology, as featured in the Polaroid Pogo Mobile Printer - features a 5mp camera, 3" screen, no optical zoom (4x digital zoom), and is available for £229. Ouch! More details at Polaroid.

Polaroid Pogo Instant Digital Camera Prototype

AP have details of the new Polaroid Pogo Instant Digital Camera and Printer Prototype being shown at CES 2009, it uses the Zink printing technology, as featured in the Polaroid Pogo Mobile Printer - and should be available later this year. More details at Polaroid:

"With the push of a button consumers can select from among the digital photos on camera, crop or edit them in less than 60 seconds and print full-colour prints,' said Polaroid UK's marketing manager Lindsay Kelson. She said that the camera will not be available until the 'second quarter' of this year, though she hinted it could be out as early as April."

Polaroid Pogo Mobile Printer Mini Review

The Polaroid Pogo Instant Mobile Printer, from Polaroid, is a compact inkless Zink based printer with USB and bluetooth support that prints small 3" by 2" sticker photos. It uses a lithium-ion rechargable battery and photos take roughly 1 minute to print. The printer comes with 10 sheets of Zink Photo Paper, an AC adapter and power lead, bluetooth passcode (printed on a card under the printer), a 1 year warranty and a short user manual. The printer is available for £86, with additional paper available for £9 for 30 sheets.

Read our Polaroid Pogo Zink Printer Mini Review here.

Here's what Polaroid have to say about the printer:

"Polaroid has reinvented instant photography for the digital age with the Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer. Sleek, stylish, and easy to use, the Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer lets you share photos whether you are on vacation or just hanging out with your friends. Bring Polaroid magic from your camera cell phone or digital camera with ZINK™ Zero Ink™ Printing Technology from ZINK Imaging. Mobile and easy-to-use, the Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer provides a new, innovative way to share digital photos directly from your camera cell phone or digital camera, instantly. The Polaroid Way."

The pictures above (click to enlarge) show bluetooth photos printed from the Sony Ericsson C905 - transfer was fairly rapid - however the first photo is slightly under-exposed (taken without flash) and this is exagerated when printed and appears slightly too dark. The second photo, of the Super Lamb Banana looks better (view the original photo here), with good detail, although it too is overly dark in the shadowy areas of the photo and vertical banding can be seen in the prints.

Loading the paper is very straightforward, the top of the printer opens up at the press of a button and the paper is placed into the printer, with a barcode "Zink Smart Sheet" at the bottom, this is read through the printer presumably so the printer knows how many sheets of photo paper have been loaded. The side features a power button, battery and alarm status LEDs, and usb socket.

The Lithium Ion battery (7.4v, 450mAh) sits under a metal cover, and provides 15 print battery life, after a full charge of two hours.

Click to enlarge - The print quality is acceptable, detail appears quite good, but colour could be better (reds are oversaturated for example). Dark areas often print overly dark, and there appears to be quite noticable verticle banding in all photos. The paper is glossy in appearance, and photos are printed with some cropping due to the different aspect ratios (digital is 4:3, while this prints onto 3:2). The photos shown above were taken with the Canon Powershot SX110 IS, and the original versions can be found in the Canon Powershot SX110 IS Gallery.

Overall: As an extremely portable printing solution the Polaroid Pogo Instant Mobile Printer is an appealling choice, priced competitively at £86, there are very few competitors. The Polaroid Pogo offers acceptable, albeit small, prints, and has good connectively through bluetooth and USB pictbridge. The only concerns are the slightly high cost per print, the short battery life, the average print quality and the small photo size, but if you just want something ultra small and portable then the Polaroid Pogo could be for you.

What I like:
+ Very small portable photo printer
+ Bluetooth and USB support (Pictbridge)
+ Very easy to use, without referring to the manual
+ No need to buy ink
+ Acceptable prints

What I don't like:
- Small prints
- Banding in images
- Print quality could be better
- 15 print battery life
- Expensive prints (30p each)

For more information please visit the Polaroid website. The photos shown of the prints and printer were taken with flash and therefore the prints looks brighter than they actually are.

Tomy Xiao TIP-521 Digital Camera Printer

Gizmodo have details of the new Tomy Xiao TIP-521 - a 5 megapixel digital camera with built in zink printer, flash, 4x digital zoom, 2.5" screen, but no optical zoom. The TOMY xiao™ TIP-521 Digital Camera with Built-in ZINK Printer will be available in Japan on November 28, 2008. More details on the Zink website.

Polaroid to Introduce Camera with Printer

Polaroid and Amateur Photographer have announced a competition to design a new Polaroid digital camera with built in printer - the printer will be based on the Polaroid Pogo printer, but will print larger 4x3 inch photos. Possible specifications could be a 10 or 7 megapixel camera with 600 or 300 dpi printer, hot shoe support, additional battery for longer life printer, and tamper proof photos:

"In an historic move, Amateur Photographer (AP) readers have been given license to help design a new Polaroid digital camera that will include an on-board printer focused on 'professional and business users'. The camera will be the first Polaroid consumer digital camera to print photographs targeted at this market, producing larger (4x3in) prints than that of the newly introduced PoGo printer, which delivers 2x3in pictures." (via Crave)

Polaroid Pogo Mini Zink Printer Review

Gizmodo have reviewed the new Polaroid Pogo mini Zink printer - it prints small 3 inch by 2 inch stickers that dry instantly using Zink paper with built in ink and can print from USB and Bluetooth devices, such as a digital camera or mobile phone.

"Though, like you, I wasn't totally sure about the PoGo, after using it, I was surprised at how promising and unique the little gadget is. It solves the biggest problem with taking pictures on cellphones, the fact that you can't look at them anywhere besides your phone. The credit-card size prints look decent enough for what they are."