The Little Dino that could – a thermal print camera

Many of us have spoken about the cost of film photography. The development costs, the film costs, the time investment, and the occasional blank roll hiding around the corner, are all present in the back of the photographer’s mind. With that in mind, I do have to ask myself and all who frequent this site, do we have to be so serious? For many of us, this WAS a profession and/or is a hobby we love so much we are compelled to share here in the vast open internet about our experiences with this lovely craft. Why take away the joy we get when making photos by focusing on the negatives (pun not intended but you’re welcome)? This should be fun, or at least, we should take care to remind ourselves to have fun when out and about with all our gear.

To that end, may I present to you my most recent FUN camera purchase. You may have seen these floating around on Youtube as I have. A nameless company produces this children’s thermal printing digital camera. It uses the same thermal paper as most cashier registers which you will find at all reputable retailers. This brings the cost of printing your photos down to less than 10 cents per photo. At least that is what some random youtuber told me. Compare that to the dollar per shot for most instant cameras and you immediately start to see the economic value of this little camera.

It comes with a plastic lens I think, a tiny CCD sensor I think, and probably has at best 5 effective megapixels… I think. If you came here looking for specifications on a $30 USD children’s toy camera, I would posit you have lost the sauce. The controls are simple. I use the arrow and square buttons to change the filters, navigate the menus, set the time, print photos, change the built in photo frames, and I use the camera button to take a picture. I use the back button to go back. I can adjust the megapixel count too, but this has little to no effect on the quality of the file. They can’t get much better and they can’t get much worse to be frank. The battery lasts for a whole day shooting assuming you aren’t printing. If you are printing, I can reliably get about 30 photos and their accompanying prints. I like to print with the time/date tag, but it is an easy feature to toggle off.

The print qualities are…. Well I will let you decide for yourself. When plugged into a power source the prints do come out better. Maybe sharper? I imagine the little battery in the camera is not strong enough to power the printer to its full potential. If you have a friend who can dump the firmware on these cameras and let the modding community get their hands on the internals, we could have a powerful little printer/camera combo coming sooner rather than later.

Now, why a dinosaur? Well, it is simple my friends. I thought it looked cute. Which brings me to my next point. It is disarming. I have not taken it out a ton, but when I have, people are not displeased to have a bright green dinosaur pointed at them. Imagine with me. I take a photo of you with my main film camera, you notice me, I change to a dinosaur camera, and then moments later I hand you a receipt of our interaction: a black and white photo on gas station paper. This is what I did for some photos at Raohe Night Market in Taipei and most people were pleased. Some were confused and some told me they did not want to pay for the photo. After saying “free photo,” they would take the print out. I’ve watched photographers on Youtube employ a similar method with instant cameras. One of my favorite’s being, Ribsy, a New York City based street portrait photographer. The digital storage also allows you to print out another photo if you want. We never have to feel bad about handing out our instant photos ever again. Not sure if any of us ever did, but if you did, now you don’t have to.

Bringing us home, I have to say that shooting with this has been a blast. It keeps the game fun while still letting me flex my framing muscles. The prints are charming enough for me to forgive the horrendous digital files which, I cannot stress enough, are awful. If you don’t want a dinosaur like I did, you can get a variety of animals from Amazon or Alibaba. Some also come styled like vintage polaroid cameras. There are also plain ones with no character or charm if that is more your style. Most range from $25-40 USD and the paper is easy to find too, for remarkably low prices. I implore you to snag one of these for yourselves and get out there shooting. Even if you don’t like it, you can give it to a niece, nephew, godchild, or your own child. If they have been behaving of course. It is, once again, a children’s toy camera after all.

I’ve recently rejoined Instagram to share new photos, take a gander if you have a moment, and if you are in the Taipei area feel free to reach out.

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