Ahhhh, the holidays!
One of the joys of gathering with friends and family is sharing the good times, current, and those in the past.
Sure, we live on screens, send digital files to each other on all the socials, yet sometimes a physical remembrance goes a long way. Nothing to open up. It’s just there.
Like a printed photo.

Growing up we always had Polaroid cameras around, to say nothing of the countless envelopes of 4×6 prints from the one hour photo, but those have gone the way of the dodo.
This season is the perfect time to enjoy and embrace this type of photography.

The company doing the best job in keeping this flame alive is Fuji with the Instax line.
Whether you are shooting with an Instax camera with 3 possible sizes.
(mini, square, or wide) OR taking the photographs you made on your phone and printing them out with a variety of film types, an even a montage of images per frame. Plus you can give a print immediately if you are an event or street photographer.
Here are my favorite cameras, and printers per format:

FUJIFILM INSTAX LINK WIDE Smartphone Printer
One thing I will point out is the wide printer which also give you the option of adding a QR code to the print, which can be a voice recording, a location, or, get this, maybe a link to your website! There is also that QR feature available in the mini line of printers

Yes, I have used preferred image with a QR code, as a handout for special client so they can have an original photo and it’s an interactive experience with the QR code. It works! Yes, Springsteen from some glory days and my music photography

FUJIFILM INSTAX MINI LINK 3 Smartphone Printer

FUJIFILM INSTAX SQUARE LINK Smartphone Printer

FUJIFILM INSTAX WIDE 400 Instant Film Camera

won’t lie: wish there were other color choices.

FUJIFILM INSTAX SQUARE SQ40 Instant Film Camera

FUJIFILM INSTAX MINI 40 Instant Camera and Monochrome Instant Film Bundle

I know what you’re thinking. Love the physicality of the photos, but how about the cost of the film? Maybe this hybrid is more what you are looking for:

The Fuji Instax Mini Evo!

Shoot film AND digital at the same time! Maybe decide what to print later? Or keep it digital and connect to the Fuji App! It is from the mini series only. Internal memory holds approximately 45 still images and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot can be used to expand storage capacity.

There are other companies joining into this revival with printers of their own.

Canon SELPHY Square QX10 Compact Portable Photo Printer, Instant Photo Printer, Mobile Friendly, AirPrint, Black make a much thinner print than Fuji and app options are not as great.Still, a good option to consider

Getting back to Polaroid, there have been attempts to resurrect the brand, and that is because something in us knows that holding a photo is a special thing.I wa a huge fanboy, and only recently sold a Pola 110b using peel apart film, and said goodbye.

There are a few models in the current line-up.

Polaroid Now+ Generation 2 i-Type Instant Camera with App Control

The reviews have suggested that you may need to take more photos than you wanted to to get the proper exposure. Plus the cost of the film is much higher than the rest.

Here is a bit of nostalgia: