WARNING This trial report may be long! I hope it helps anyone considering whether to do this or not.
So, at our wedding we are setting up a home made photobooth for some fun, but also with the idea that we want photos to be printed instantly for the guestbook for guests to stick in alongside their messages for us.
I thought about using a Polaroid camera but a) we don't have a polaroid camera and didn't really want to buy one just for the wedding b) polaroid film is stupidly expensive and we didn't want to have to say to guests 'only one film per person allowed' and c) I really wanted the digital files of any pics taken to be able to send these to the guests with our thank you cards.
The solution I found was the Polaroid Pogo Printer - rather than buy new, I bought one on Ebay for £20 (which apparently hadn't been used anyway and was an unwanted gift).
Other equipment I needed was a camera which was compatible with pictbridge (how the camera sends the photo to the printer) which I already had (a Canon 350D - but plenty of cameras and phones are compatible). A connecting lead, in this case, just my normal camera to computer (USB) lead. Oh and paper. The cheapest paper I could find was on amazon, £10.31 for 70 sheets which means a cost per photo of 14p.
The printer is so easy to use, it literally has a usb slot to plug the camera into, an on/off button with lights to show if there is an issue, and a plug thing at the back to plug in the charger to charge it up.
So how did it work:
Step One - load paper - paper comes in packs of ten so you load one pack into the top which just opens with a button with the blue card in the bottom. The printer sends through the blue card (presumable just to make sure paper is all set to go) and then the green light comes on showing its ready to use.
Step Two - Connect camera to printer with lead
Step Three - Turn camera on and switch it to the setting to 'view photos' - a little beep will sound to show the camera and printer are talking to each other and a little menu pops up on the screen on your camera.
Step Four - Make sure you are on the photo you want to print - and on the little menu that has popped up - select print
Step Five - 60 seconds later you have a photo
Step Six - Leave for a few seconds to make sure totally dry (which is was as soon as it came out really) peel off sticky back and stick into guest book
Here are some pics for you.
This last photo shows one of the pictures I printed out. Its a picture of my tomato plants. Train ticket is in there to show size (basically credit card size). The print quality is great for an instant photo, not what you get from a proper printed photo with real ink, but the way it looks it almost 'old film' like - can't really explain but I think it will make great pics in my guest book.
So all in all, for £20 for the printer (which I will sell on) and £10 for 70 photos I think its a bargain. Its also super easy for anyone to use.
Would recommend it for anyone wanting to do a similar thing.
Sorry for the HUGE report. Can you imagine my wedding report if I can write this much about printing a photo? Ha ha ?
