The Best Zero-Ink Instant Cameras and Printers
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Film may have largely disappeared, but the photograph is sticking around. We've covered the best instant-printing cameras that use Fujifilm's Instax technology for the past year or so. They produce Polaroid-style prints, but there's another option: Zink printing.
Zink is short for "zero ink." It eliminates the annoying need for (and running out of) ink cartridges in your printer. Instead Zink prints hold layers of ink in the paper itself. When the image prints, a pressure-based process mixes the ink around to produce the image. Zink produces more traditional prints that look like what you'd get from a professional printer (without the professional quality), instead of the Polaroid-esque big-bordered pics of Instax cameras.
Zink printers are slower than Instax to spit out your images, but they're done the minute they emerge. They're also sticky-backed. Zink prints tend to have better dynamic range—meaning there is a broader range of color and tone in the image—compared with Instax prints, but they struggle to produce the rich blacks you get in Instax prints.
Since the technology is basically the same across all of these devices, you'd think the results would be similar, but we found a surprising amount of variation when we tested different cameras and printers. Below are our top recommendations for Zink-based cameras and printers.
Best Overall (Dual Camera + Printer)
Kodak's newest offering, the Smile Classic brings instant-camera nostalgia to the present with a design that's reminiscent of Polaroid, but sleeker and slimmer. It spits out larger, 3.2 x 4.5-inch prints with a white border that gives them a much classier look than the smaller images Zink devices usually print. It has a nice fixed-focus 2-mm f/2.2 lens and a 10-second self-timer button, though no selfie mirror.
The Classic can also do double duty, serving as a printer for your phone. Connect via Bluetooth to the Kodak mobile app and print anything from your device. Its larger print paper is more expensive but worth it. The added printing flexibility and excellent lens make the Classic our favorite Zero Ink camera and printer.
Best Photo Quality
The Kodak Smile produced the best images of all the Zink cameras we tested. It's simple, compact design makes it easy to take with you, and the sliding on-off mechanism prevents you from accidentally snapping images in your bag. The 10-megapixel sensor isn't the best we tested, but it's more than capable of producing quality 2 x 3-inch Zink prints. The fixed-focus lens can be limiting, but it's in keeping with the Polaroid's instant-camera tradition of fixed-focus images.
The image results are great. Combined with other niceties—like an LCD viewfinder for reviewing images and a built-in editor for tweaking images before printing—make the Smile the best choice for most people looking for a Zink camera.
Best Zink Printer
If you don't need a camera, and just want to print the images you take with your phone (or even DSLR for that matter), the Sprocket Photo Printer offers the best results. It's roughly the size of a phone—a little larger than the cameras on this list, but not by much. The Sprocket connects with iPhone, iPad, or Android phones via Bluetooth, and its mobile app lets you edit and customize your photos before printing. There's also an option to tile your images onto multiple prints for a larger, pieced-together image.
The printed results are the best of all the devices we tested and have deeper blacks than other Zero Ink printers and cameras.
A Print-Happy Camera
The Polaroid Mint Camera and Printer combo is a stylish, well-designed little package (just slightly bigger than a deck of cards) available in a variety of colors. The vertical orientation isn't always what you want, but it mirrors how most of us shoot with our phones.
Its 16-megapixel sensor is also notably better than our top pick, and the selfie mirror is helpful, but Mint has a huge limitation: Everything prints, even the duds. If you want to review your images, the Kodak above is the best choice. If you're OK with printing everything, the Mint produces great results.
Another Auto-Printing Cam
The Canon Ivy Cliq (see our full review) is a pocket-friendly, super simple camera with no digital nonsense to get in the way of snapping images. You can add a MicroSD to save photos, but the Ivy Cliq is best when you keep it simple—point, shoot, print.
The plastic case feels a little cheap, though it did fine rattling around in my bag all day. The big downside to the Ivy Cliq is that, unlike the top pick, which allows you to review images before printing, it also always prints, whether you want to or not. The results aren't quite as nice as what the Polaroid Mint produces, but this is a close second.
An Extra-Compact Printer
The Polaroid Mint Mini Printer is nearly identical to the camera, it just lacks the camera features. Instead you get a highly portable printer that's very simple to use and produces nearly identical results to the camera. The HP Sprocket produces slightly better prints to my eye, but if you want to save a little money and still get 90 percent of what the Sprocket offers, the Mint Printer is a good choice. Polaroid's phone app is slightly more intuitive than HP's app, but it lacks the option to select multiple prints at a time.
Another Good Printer
If you don't need the camera, Kodak's Smile Printer offers a great way to get prints off your phone. It's virtually identical to our top pick, the Smile Classic dual camera and printer. It just doesn't have a camera. Instead, it connects via Bluetooth to your smartphone and prints images from your phone. The printed images are on par with what you'll get from the camera version. If you tend to edit and tweak colors on your phone, you can get better results from this than the camera, which has no editing features onboard.
A True Photo Printer
The Canon Selphy isn't a Zink printer. It uses dye sublimation, which means you will eventually have to buy ink. It also produces 4 x 6 prints of a much higher caliber than Zink is capable of creating. In a way, it's completely unfair to compare this to Zink printers, but because it shares the roughly $100 price, we think it's an alternative worth exploring if you're willing to trade portability for larger, higher-quality prints.
The Selphy is portable, but it certainly won't fit in your pocket. It will, however, produce prints roughly on par with what you'd get from the machines at your local drugstore.
Don't Buy These …
Getty ImagesZero Ink Printers to Avoid
Zink technology is pretty uniform across devices, but that doesn't mean they're all good. We don't like Prynt's Classic or Pocket printers which only work with iPhones. They print just fine, but they cost more—and if you switch away from iPhone down the line, you'll need a printer too.
Similarly, there are numerous no-name brand zero-ink printers out there. Some of them may be fine, but they're generally more expensive than the name-brand options here. We suggest sticking with names you know and prices around the $100 mark for the best combination of value and quality.
