Of all the industries that digitization has transformed, photography has probably suffered the most dramatic shakeups. From film to digital photography and, in the last ten years, a wave of origins has allowed a return to analog systems, although it has always been for a huge minority. This has been greatly contributed to by Fujifilm, one of the companies that had to transform in a very short time, when its huge core business, film, began to disappear rapidly due to the emerging digital cameras and mobile phones. The creation of the Instax brand for instant casual photos aimed at a very young audience, has been established in the market for more than a decade through cameras and printers. Now it was time to take the role further.
The reinvention of the photo comes with the new Instax Square Link printer, a portable and very light device that combines the experience of physical printing with that of videos and effects typical of applications for social networks. The formula to make paper something more than what it is, a physical support, is achieved through a new app, Square Link, which is what allows you to view everything that has been created and what has been left in memory in a QR that can be placed in any of the four corners of the photo or in its center.
Square Link has two features, AR Print, which brings augmented reality to paper with animations, text, images, and doodles. When the QR of the physical photo is focused with the mobile camera, the Fujifilm app is opened and the effect that the user had customized is loaded, which is saved in the cloud for at least two years. It can also be saved to always have it on your own mobile, but it cannot be shared from that moment on.
To share it, the other person must have the physical photo with the QR and have downloaded the app. The second feature of the app is Instax Connect, a system for printing a messaging chat that appears in the photo, of which you can get a copy, with or without the text. The application has a good range of printing customization options, with frames, graphics, drawings and collages.
The printer responds just as well as other Fujifilm Instaxes. It connects via Bluetooth with the mobile in a very fast operation. From that moment, printing can begin. Just touch a button to repeat the same printing that is running, a useful option for this type of device, with which there is always someone who asks to take the same printed photo. There is a mode of natural colors and another enriched, which saturates the color a little more. The printing process takes 12 seconds. Then you have to wait a few minutes for the image to be fully revealed. It is loaded with cartridges of 10 photos.
The new Instax Square Link is a fun option to add extra play value to your photos. It has a lot of social. It is easy and fun to use and its audience is not only the youngest, which is what has made this brand grow. With a mobile and around this printer there is a lot for entertainment. At least, until the charge of each cartridge, which contains two photos, is finished. The price is 149.99 euros.
