TL;DR and extra notes: not sure how i ended up using “bananas” in place of swearing BUT i did manage to troubleshoot the sky issue in the kodak by printing the image upside down, so the artefact/mark is hidden in the busier bottom half of the photo. so i might go with that for travelling because the colour accuracy is definitely the best? hoping maybe it's a bad batch of paper or something. will feedback over time 🫡 summary 🔎 timestamp for silent side by side comparison: 56:19 thermal: ok for temporary prints, but no longevity and very little detail. don't really recommend, but ymmv. hp sprocket: colour accuracy very poor, a bit crunchy looking, but has an adhesive back and the prints are thin. fujifilm instax (mini): nostalgic, not the best detail but in a sort of soft/cosy way. colour accuracy iffy, prints are a bit thick. kodak 4pass: good colour accuracy, decent detail compared to others. weird marks on paper but prints are otherwise great, paper is thin enough for bound books. novelty of watching it print is 10/10 had no issues using any of the apps, and all the printers connected via bluetooth with minimal fuss. didn't have to sign up for any accounts to use the printers- just skipped through it all and was able to print fine. which printer would you choose? 🧐

I’m about to type an essay because mini printers and cameras are such a special interest of mine for some reason! I love being able to document images on the go! The print quality definitely isn’t the best on the HP sprocket, nor is the colour accuracy annoyingly! I’m a massive fan of the Canon Selphy Square….the prints are bigger which, can be annoying depending on what books you’re sticking them into but, I just cut them down if I need to ☺️. I take a lot of photos on my Olympus pen camera which, may have something to do with the overall quality of the photos potentially but, I also think the colours are just more accurate too and I believe this is probably because of it being a sublimation printer. Another good thing is that one is sticky back too so good for on the go even though it's slightly larger in size! The paper is also thin too for sticking in books! A little tip for the sprocket, if you're having issues with the track lines/noise printing on your photos but the blue calibration card back in underneath the paper. It does help to recalibrate it I've found! I’ve also got the Canon Zoemini 2 which is similar to the sprocket. It's sticky backed too and I would say I probably prefer it to the sprocket. The battery life is also better! Side note and completely unrelated as it's more of a hybrid....with you having an interest in photography you might prefer something like the Instax mini evo. I have one to replace my old instax printer and it's great because you can take photos with it and store them on the camera but, you can also print photos from your phone camera roll. It's also got a super retro aesthetic look to it which I love! So far, I've nailed it down to the following uses: HP sprocket - Book cover/CD cover printing occasionally stretching to on the go travel photos Canon Selphy Square - Higher quality memory keeping photos to stick in books Instax photos - Memory keeping/artsy photography Canon Zoemini - On the go travel photos If anyone has read this far, apologies for the essay, I just looked back and didn't realise how much I actually wrote haha! ☺️

I know yellow isn’t your favorite but the yellows in this video/thumbnail look so good with your aesthetic. The pop of color is great 💛

It’s kind of crazy with all the technology we have currently that we cannot get our shit together with portable printers 😭😭

I have the canon ivy 2 and I think it’s the best in the market. The best thing I like about it is that it auto lightens your photos before it prints so the color accuracy is much better than the first generation. I had a hp sprocket for barely a day but I sold it bc the printer would die in the middle of printing and it would waste a page of photo paper. Huge waste of money imo. Even when the canon ivy dies, it still will complete the print. No mini printer will have the color accuracy you’re looking for, at least not in this day and age. You could always get a canon selphy printer but those are bigger and I know you said you wanted to travel with it. But it would give you better color accuracy and you could print more than one photo on the page with the way their apps are set up. I have one I just don’t use it often enough.

this is exactly the review I wanted, 10/10 would continue to listen/watch more printer reviews

I really want to print my photos, but I don't feel the need to do it on the go. I only have a black and white printer at home at the moment, so I'm starting from scratch if I want a printer for journal prints. I'm trying to decide if I should do a dedicated mini-printer, a regular size color printer, or a tinier true photo printer or something. All the comparisons are making my head swim, I appreciate you helping a tad!

If you're into the square polaroid type printing, I really love my Canon Selphy QX10! It's very similar to the Kodak where it has its own ink. I have not had any issues with artifacts on the Canon. It also has a sticky backside like the Sprocket! Best of all worlds I think. The only downside is that the paper size is pretty big, so if you're trying to stuff it into a smaller journal it can take up a lot of the page. But I think because you're in a Filofax it should be ok! You can paperclip it or print multiple photos and cut down (there's a collage feature).

I've used a sprocket for years and the photos are holding up fine. I have them in travellers journals and hobonichis and there is no sign of fading

"She is alive" Megan Iconic haha

This is perfect timing, I was looking into mini printers literally just yesterday and the Kodak one is one I haven't heard of but looks perfect for me!

I didn't know kodak printers had technology other than zinc but I see that model uses sublimation as well, very interesting! Glad to see you were able to resolve the sky problem. I might get one of those for my travels.

This is absolutely the enthralling content I was looking for. Thank you so much for the in depth reviews it was honestly really helpful for me

I didn't know they made little printers like that with actual ink 😮

Thank you for putting this together! I've been combing through review videos and still feel so confused but your comparison was very helpful. Kodak added to wish list

Thank you for this review/test it was kinda eye opening that none of these printers are really as great as we want them to be. I personally have the Canon Ivy and it's ''ok'' I do have to play and manipulate a lot of the settings to get a halfway decent print... in the end I mostly just use my regular printer and print on there its also less bulky using printer paper. It's to bad though having that small portable elusive on the go print is so tempting! xx

Thank you for taking the time to do all that. Much appreciated! ❤😊

Thank you so much for this vid! Literally last night I was thinking about getting the sprocket but now I’m much more interested in the Kodak or the canon selphy. I really want a decent mini printer that isn’t instax (bc of cost) as I live in NYC and don’t have space for a full sized printer. I can’t tell 100% what the issue with the sky was in the Kodak, but maybe it was having trouble printing the detail of the clouds?? Also what glue stick do you use? Every one I’ve tried always ends up lifting and I end up using double sided tape.

I have the Kodak P300R, Canon Selphy Square, and the Polaroid Hi Print. All are sublimation printers. The Canon one is my favorite. The Polaroid has fewer edge printing issues. Kodak has the most accurate color, but can sometimes create high contrasts prints that look almost metallic. Highly recommend trying the Canon Selphy Square printer. The prints are thin with light adhesive back (meant to restick like post-its). The square area is smaller than Polaroid and Fujifilm, so something to keep in mind. Not a fan of zink. I don't expect to live 100 years, but I want my prints to be archival quality in case my family wants them when I'm gone.

Thank you so much for doing this video. My Canon ivy (first generation) has been okay(ish) for my previous needs; its colours and brightness are much like you found the Sprocket. I have been wanting to buy a new printer, but was scared to be disappointed again. Thanks to your video, I know that Kodak is the way to go. Thank you so much! My only quibble with the video is where you said that perhaps people were having trouble with the apps because they might be older. Age and being technologically unsavvy don't necessarily go together. It's just a little thing but it was a bit irksome. I found your channel via a shoutout from The Common Corner, and I am looking forward to curling up with your videos and a cup of tea. Thanks again!

I have test the sprocket this summer and was so disappointed so replace by the Kodak one and love so much the Kodak withe the black frame that my most favorite I have test the canon also selphy cp_1500 but that’s not a travel one but we can print a lot more photo with it because you can fit 4 in one shit and do the black frame and ink during more time and maybe less cost than the other and the quality is great . With the Kodak only print with it when I just have one photo to down size the coast but this is my favorite . Sometimes you need to retouch the photo . I think the big is we have all different phone with different photo settings so that’s why quality is much different.

I have a Poooli thermal printer, a HP Sprocket, a Canon Zoemini 2, and a Kodak Mini 3 Retro (same as the one in the video but with square prints) My favourites are my Canon Zoemini 2 (the European name for the Ivy 2) and my Kodak Mini 3. I do not get any 'artifacts' on my Kodak so I'm thinking Megan has a dodgy cartridge. I had a dodgy cartridge once where each of the 4 layers were slightly misaligned, so unfortunately it does happen sometimes but it's not common for the cartridges to be faulty and it's only ever happened to me once. The Canon Zoemini 2 does give a slightly orange-ish "retro" hue to photos, but I like the overall quality of the prints and haven't had any issues with lines or misalignment. The Kodak is my favourite for the colours, and because mine is square you can add a border in app to make it look like an actual Polaroid which is fun. The Poooli one is kind of crap, I mostly use it to print out Spotify screencaps and the like, things that I won't care too much about fading over time because they WILL fade fast. Personally I also think the refill paper is expensive for what it is. This is my only printer I full on regret buying. HP Sprocket is exactly like shown in this video - it streaks, it misaligns, it adds a sharpening filter that you can't switch off so everything looks crunchy. I've also had issues where the app just randomly prints the same image twice, which is frustrating when there's limited prints and they're quite expensive. Edit to add as well that I've had my HP Sprocket since 2017 and literally none of my photos have faded

Great video, really informative and you definitely helped me make a choice when it comes to my own mini printer. Can I suggest trying out the Cannon Selphy printer, it gives you the option to print regular-sized photos as well as collage prints and I think it might be a good option to try, especially if you want to use it for memory keeping and photos to look back on in the future. My mother-in-law uses it for her scrapbooking and swears by it, so I would like your opinion of it, considering I'm thinking of getting one for myself. Thanks again for a great video, and I hope to watch you again next week :)

Another vote here for the Canon Ivy. I love mine and I have not been disappointed which is saying something because I’m picky about printing my own photography.

Thank You, thank you, thank you for answeing our questions about the durability of the thermal printed pictures.

I began watching this yesterday & had a few minutes left when I had to go do something else, but now I feel I need to “get in the flow” of it all again to be able to articulate my thoughts on it, so I’ll rewatch it! I’ll come back when I’ve done so! 😅🙈

Interesting comparison - thank you! Your artifcat on the Kodak paper - hard to see from the video, but I wonder if you're picture is a tad "over-exposed" - or more preceisely, that printer doesn't have/cannot print the dymanic range as you can see on your phone - that is, the range of tones is too broad for that printer to handle. In the other photos, the range of tones are much closer, and so you don't appear to have the same problem. Anyway, you've convinced me to go and get one, along with my Sprocket, Instax and Canon Selphy (which is brilliant by the way - the best of the ones I have, but much larger!)

I wonder if you’re getting the artifact on the outdoor photo with the Kodak because both of the times you printed that one the battery was 10%. I would try printing that one again when the battery is fully charged or with the printer plugged in. Fuji film green tinge-I vaguely recall reading something long ago that the composition of Fuji film lends itself to green tinge while Kodak film tends toward orange. They were talking about standard film, not instant or these mini printers but I wonder if that’s coming into play here.

Could it be the light setting on your phone which makes the images print differently for sporket? Sometimes that messes up with the outcome printing from different devices. Just a thought.

i found the pooli would fade with even my own body heat from where i rest my arms on my journal while i am typing at my desk. other prints on the same page wouldnt fade because my arms wouldnt sit there. the transparent paper refills faded way less than the white sticker paper so I use those and yes they are not for long term anything, just for fun stuff mostly like memes in the moment so i dont have to write text out. my journals are not meant to be archival though i do plan to keep them so it works for me plus my kids like making their own stickers too. my sprocket I use relatively sparingly because its also msotly just for fun for certain things in my journals. I adjust the photo in the app to compensate for the colour issues and they usually turn out just fine, i kind of have a sense for how overly warm they are. and the sticker options on them are fun for my kids who like to have quick photos. so yeah, theyre especially fun for kids, or for chill uses in my journal lol if I wanted photo quality I would use photo paper on my home printer, or get them printed elsewhere.

I have the hp sprocket and have had no luck resolving any of the issues you found with it unfortunately. I'm honestly let down by it everytime I use it and haven't bothered to buy film/paper for it in over a year now as the colour and sharpening issues are just too annoying for me to want to use it! Although, my sister also owns one and hers seems to have better colour accuracy!

is there any mini printer that prints matte photos?

I LITERALLY just googled this yesterday and nothing solid came up - THANK YOU

I bought an Instax a couple of years ago and it worked once, then it wouldn’t connect to my phone after that. Maybe I can figure it out, but I set it aside and never tried again. I bought a Canon Selphy a few months ago and never have taken it out of the box. I think the Instax made me nervous. Thank you for doing this! I can see why the reviews are frustratingly mixed on all the printers!

It looks like the white line at the bottom of the Kodak print is there on the photo on your phone screen too, so not necessarily the printers fault?

interesting! i've been meaning to try the polaroid hi-print, but i might compare it against the kodak and see which comes out most cost efficient 🤔

I have a sprocket. It is an old one and it started failing last year, but I’ve had it for like 7 years, probably more. It has been a while. Is ok. I don’t care about print quality tbh. I just use now and then for memory keeping, this year I have just printed 3 times 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t trust the Kodak one. My sister got that exact model and it was good the first time she used it. The print quality is really nice, however it just stopped working almost right away. She got 3 packs of film along with the printer. She used up 2 right away and for the last one we left like 6 or 7 prints. Two days later we tried again to print and the printer did not recognise the available paper. We thought that maybe it was faulty and another pack was ordered. We printed one picture and left the rest. She went to print again like a week later and same thing. It happened every time we left any prints unused. In total she must have lost like 20+ pictures. Which is a lot. You need to use up the whole thing in a go, which she never intended to do as she only wanted it for special events. It might be a faulty printer or something, but we tried everything, making sure the firmware was up to date, resetting, the old turn it on and off… but nope, nothing worked. We contacted Kodak but they just had us do some troubleshooting (which we had already done several times) and try a new pack… which is why 20+ pictures were wasted. I have considered the instax, but is expensive, in my currency all the printers you tested are over 1k, the newer instax models are all over 2k. Is a lot anyway, that’s why I’m still dealing with my good old and faulty sprocket, I just cannot afford to even replace it.

I love my canon Selphy Sq. I'd recommend if you are looking for quality 💕

I have a canon mini ivy 2 that uses the zink paper and the color accuracy is horrendous. Certainly a lot of blue tones and always a little darker than I'd like. I do like that the prints are thinner than the Instax. The benefit of the Instax printer for me was that I already had stacks of film from my instant camera, but the prints are so thick for keeping in a bound book.

Lowkey your content has inspired me to buy a new printer-- like a full size one; I bought an hp years ago that prints like mud and makes me want to commit crimes because the ink is so expensive and each cartridge only prints like 5 pages of pictures 🙄. I used to journal much like how you do, but haven't been able to since like 2017 because of printer hell. Hopefully my new one (an epson) prints nice pictures so I can get back into it 😊

Although not pocketable you should check out the Canon Selphy 1500. Thanks for saving me the effort on researching options to my Canon Ivy

Thanks so much for this.. until I saw your video I thought I was going with a Sprocket so thanks for saving me!

old books love 🫶🏻 love that sometimes your ephemera times them! your polaroids are such a dream 🫢 i've been thinking of getting a square instax! mostly finally want to learn the technical process of doing double exposures on my analog camera, i've let her dust a little too long and i love overlayering so much

For me, I have the canon Ivy 2 and yes, the quality is poor. But for someone who doesn’t have a coloured printer, it’s the best option for me! I find it to be the cheapest alternative and quick for small photos in my journal. I wish the paper was less thick though because it’s awkward to write and turn the pages, but the sticky back def saves me time :))

I was watching @janethecrazy the other day and she was saying that mini printer photos other than instax don't really last which is why she just uses instax. I really want these mini printers to work but I think you have to be aware of the trade off between the slimness and durability. So glad you made this review. Thank you.

I wonder if the canon ivy and hp sprocket are so popular because they're more easily accessible? I know here in the U.S. you can buy the refills and the printers at places like best buy and walmart.

In re. sticky back v. glue stick: I do not trust the longevity of the adhesive backs, so absolutely do not want that. I use archival glue-a glue stick, archival PVA glue, or an archival glue pen. If photos were to start dropping out of my book, there’s no way I’d be able to figure out where they belonged to replace them, and I do NOT want oxidized glue-gack on ky photos or my notebook pages.

I think you can fix getting the white line by moving the picture in the app. I have the mini retro 2 as well and I don't have the issue. :/

They sound a bit like the barbers/tattoo shop. Weirdly relaxing little printers.

I haven't had an instant camera since the 70's but back then you had to leave the photo face down while it developed. I understand that the new cameras are the same if you want the best quality- so maybe worth a try :)

I’m late for this video but I had a Zink (heat) mini printer & photo colors were bad and became worse over the years (around 9 years later). The photos were all kept in a cool dry container.

LOVE this!

Im so sad youre getting artifacts on the Kodak. This doesnt happen on mine, I wonder if yours is defective somehow? Really appreciate your review, I wish I had had this video before I bought my first one (a sprocket 🤦) I know you had negative things to say about the thermal printer but honestly your old journals make me want to play with it haha

Which is the best?

FWIW the color settings you changed on the sprocket are just for the LED indicator light, not the photo itself

I love my sprocket! Not because it has a sticky backing because like you said you can just glue it but I’ve had mine for years and never had issue. Even prints from 2017 are still great! It’s quick and I’m never really printing anything intricate so I don’t care about that. I’ve never gotten a green smudge before 🤔 The Instax is great and lasts long! The kodak takes way too long for me 😅but so do love that one too!

Zoom in a bit on the kodak app to get rid of that tiny white line

WTF 😂 just yesterday I searched for a video like this from a journal content creater and i didnt found someone i was satisfied with, with exactly these mini printers! 😂 i just went online and bought the kodak one 😂😂 im nervous about what you are going to say now 😂😂

my hp sprocket prints very red / pink hued if anyone is looking into that, also i have had it for 5ish years and the photos seem to last well.

I just wanted to comment and encourage that people boycott HP. HP developed the technology that surveillances Palestinians. Truly wicked behavior

i feel so unresolved haha my experiences with photo printers have also been suck so i don't have a travel sized one, still just use the regular home printer (when i feel like configuring a bunch of things onto one large page to print)

I inherited my hp sprocket form my mom when she wasn’t using it and mine also springs with a weird crunchy sharpness filter with weird colors, always, and lines…works best with like flash nighttime photography but that’s so specific, it’s just not worth it.

💜✨

the sprocket was fine at first but over time the photos started printing darker and darker so I don't recommend it.

I think when the Sprocket asks for LED color it allows you to custom the light colour, it has nothing to do with printing :)

Thank you for putting this together! I've been scanning through review videos and still feel so confused but your comparison was very helpful. Tiffany Phlanx's Marketing Specialist

I purchased the sprocket last year. I hate it for the same reasons.

If photo quality is the most important, have you considered just getting them printed at a local pharmacy or print shop? The quality will be better than anything you'd get from one of these little printers + it wouldn't take so much time + be significantly cheaper too.

Would you ever be willing to do an animal crossing topic/tour video?🥹 Animal crossing is my special interest it would be sooo amazing

I’ve had a sprocket printer for years. The pictures hold up well for years, I haven’t noticed any fading. But the quality of the pictures is not great. I use it to print pictures of family and friends. It’s not good enough for printing any artsy pictures.

My biggest concern with thermal printers is HOW LONG WILL IT LAST???? I have receipts from 2 years ago that look completely faded away and I'm pretty sure receipts are printed by thermal printers. Yeah that 10 year claim sounds like BS

I have a zink printer and it has always been bad

Looove the video!! Does anyone know if there's a video like this but about instant cameras? I've been thinking about getting one, but tech reviews are a bit overwhelming, like, i just want a very autistic in depth review like this...not a tech guy telling me about specification😅😅😅

if you take a beautiful holiday photo do you really want it printed on a 2x3 tiny box? It seems like you're expecting way, way too much out of these devices. I've been curious about zink printers for a long time. Love the idea for travelling, the form factor, and the lack of fussing with ink. But if you take a good picture with a nice camera, or even a modern smart phone I don't think those printers are going to be able to do the picture proper justice like a real photo would. Even the Kodak w/ ink cartridges is not going to be on par w/ image quality because that size is just so small. They're for printing quick little keepsakes. A photo of something interesting you saw on a walk or at a shop. The size is great for putting in a book, but who would want to view a collection of someone's photos all in tiny 2x3 images? Great review. I still want some sort of photo printer for my HON, but I'm still torn over which to get.

I have the selphy square and it’s really good quality but the refills are so expensive for the prints 🫣