polaroid printer

Has anyone had experiece with one of the two types of polaroid

printers that print images onto polaroid film? I have the one that

uses type 500 film and I know there is one that uses spectra film. I

might buy one that uses spectra film but i can't find much

documentation about it.

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<a href="http://www.gordonphoto.net">Gordon</a>

I have the one that "prints" onto 500 film. You can usually find them in the clearance bin at camera stores and even some big box stores for $15 (which is what I paid for mine). 500 film isn't cheap (a buck a print) but it's a fun little toy.

Olympus had a digital camera that had a built-in printer that used 500 film. Basicly a gutted version of the stand-alone polaroid printer slapped onto a 2.1MP camera. Crazy concept :)

Rob Bernhard:

500 film isn't cheap? I can get ten fresh packs on ebay usually for $50.

Gordito Boddington:

what is the name of the printer that prints onto Spectra film?

I have the one that prints onto 500 film... and I think it's just ok... not that great... but the Spectra one sounds cool.

it is called the <a href="http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/811630136.htm">Polaroid PhotoMax Web Color Printer</a>. and I know that ritz stores everywhere have tons of them.

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<a href="http://www.gordonphoto.net">Gordon</a>

<em>500 film isn't cheap? I can get ten fresh packs on ebay usually for $50.</em>

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Even dye sublimation printers are less expensive per-print than your bulk purchase, Kim. It's a niché product and a fun product but it's not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.

The Polaroid ColorShot printer is a newer version than the ColorMax version somebody mentioned previously. I think the only difference being that the ColorShot supports USB. Unfortunately, both printers only support up to Windows 95/98.

I bought a few ColorShot printers off of ebay and set up a Windows 98 machine just to use it. I like it a lot, but the results aren't completely what I expected. The naked eye can see a little pixelization. But, if you don't have your nose to the print, you probably won't notice it. I just like the idea of printing to polaroids.

One trick in using this printer is to downsample your source images because the polaroid print driver introduces all sorts of jaggies if you feed it a high res file.

Good luck!

-Kev