New Toy

A few days ago I was inspired by Andrea at Indigo Blue (blog) to purchase a

Polaroid Pogo travel printer. This small photo printer is compatible with

digital cameras and cell phones.

This printer requires no ink. The magic is in the photo paper. There are

100 billion dye crystals embedded in the printer paper( PC World July 22, 2008).

Somehow it kinda works like the old Polaroid cameras but their is no shaking the pictures after

printing and there is need to allow for drying time.

The printed picture is small, 2x3 inches. The paper is sold in packs of ten

for around $4.00 and has a sticky backing, just peal the plastic backing off

and you have a sticker.

In a quick search of online stores I couldn't find the Pogo.

 I had hoped to pick one up locally.

I'm thinking maybe they are no longer sold in stores.

I did find lots of Pogos at Amazon and on Ebay. 

Originally they were priced at $150.00,

I found one for $28.00 on Amazon. Considering the mixed reviews

 for the Pogo I've read on-line I would not have taken the chance

and spent  $150 on this product.

Here are a few pictures I printed from my cell phone.

I have a low end cell phone and the camera on it has 3.2 mega pixels.

I have not taken pictures on my cell phone before this and am not tech savy but I figured out how to send a picture from my cell phone

 via Blue Tooth to the printer.

The sun at the top of the picture didn't come out so well but I like the picture quality otherwise.

The picture on the right is of a plant with frost on it's edges. The picture was blurry on my phone too.

One of the major complaits I read online with the Pogo was about streaks in the finished photo.

I did find a review where a woman figured out how to fix the streak problem.

I read about the solution before I ordered my pogo. Of course now I can't find the review.

I think she suggested to use the blue smart sheet that comes with each pack of paper often.

She claims it's dust that causes the streaks. She suggested leaving the printer door open and as the blue sheet is expelled from the printer genitally press down with your fingers to help the cleaning process. She also suggest keeping the blue sheets and using them as weights on top of the white photo paper. Will try to find the review to make sure I got the facts straight.

 The printer was delivered yesterday and

 I have not tried it with my point and shoot digital camera.

My Olympus is a high-end point and shoot. It takes great pictures but I can't stand the time it takes to auto focus. It's a problem with all point and shoots. I bought the Olympus because the size of my Canon makes it hard to lug on trips but waiting for the auto focus on a small camera and missing shots because of it's slowness has left  me with lugging my Canon.

The Pogo has a UBS cord to plug into digital cameras and computers. I read connecting to a computer might be tricky and you may need to contact customer support. I have not tried to print from my Canon SLR yet. My Canon is a D20, which in tech standards is vintage--- 2005. It might be old but it works just fine and I'm happy with it.

Also, the Pogo is NOT COMPATIBLE WITH the APPLE iPhone.

They don't have Blue Tooth.

If you are a serious photographer I wouldn't bother with the Pogo. It's a fun toy. It would be fun at a party or on a vacation. I would not count on the pictures it prints for producing keepsake pictures.

But for art and a travel journal...it could lead to big fun!

I'm thinking with the adhesive backing I'll be using my Pogo prints on mail art.