Polaroid’s pocket-sized ‘Snap’ camera provides on-the-go printing sans ink

Polaroid has announced the latest addition to its camera roster, the Snap, a digital camera that can print out a photo without using ink.

The secret behind this technological marvel comes courtesy of a company called “ZINK”. Instead of using ink, the camera makes use of special printing paper which contains cyan, yellow, and magneta dye crystals under a protective polymer coating. The printer inside the camera is specially designed to activate these crystals for the purpose of producing a full-color photo.

The photos themselves are 2 inches by 3 inches in size—approximately wallet-sized or so. Worth noting is the fact that these papers come with adhesive backs, too, so they can double up as stickers as well. 

Not much of a surprise is the fact that these ZINK papers are a bit expensive—a 50-pack of 2×3 ZINK paper costs $25 on Amazon right now.

Snap photos aren’t limited to 2×3 only—users can print larger sizes later as the Snap takes 10-megapixel photos and has a microSD slot to hold memory cards with up to 32GB of capacity.

Some additional details worth noting: the camera features a bunch of a simple presets—color, black and white, vintage. It also has a selfie timer and a photo booth mode, which records six photos in 10 seconds. Lastly, it has an f2.8 lens that is a fixed focal length, meaning there is no zoom feature, and there’s no digital display; instead, there’s a pop-up optical viewfinder atop the camera. 

Snap will be available in four colors—black, white, red, and blue—towards the end of the year. It will retail for $99. 

Via CNET