Kodak’s New Instant Camera Has a Rotatable Lens That Adds a Quick Pop of Color
You can peel off the back of your prints to make them stickers, too.
Instant cameras are back and they have a lot of new tricks up their sleeves. Kodak released its Smile+ instant camera which has a built-in rotating lens that lets you quickly switch between three different modes. You can go from the standard Natural filter to the sepia-toned Retro filter with just a twist of the lens.
There’s no shortage of fun entry-level instant camera options these days, with Fujifilm Instax’s Mini 12 being the go-to option. Still, Kodak is trying to mix things up with its unique lens design and its prints that double as a sticker.
Rotate the lens to quickly switch between the Smile+’s three filters.
Switch Between Filters Before You Snap
Besides the Natural and Retro filters, the Smile+ has a Star filter mode to give a sunburst effect to any bright lights in your shot. Like most affordable instant cameras, Kodak’s latest offering also has a fixed focus and auto flash. It’s no Polaroid I-2, so don’t expect any hi-res photos from the Smile+ since it maxes out at five megapixels. Still, that’s more than enough to capture those fleeting moments that you’re buying this for.
You do have to exercise some patience with this instant camera since Kodak says it takes around 60 seconds to fully develop one of its shots. Once it’s fully printed, you can either keep it as a tear- and water-resistant two-inch by three-inch print or peel the back off to reveal its sticky back. If you want something a little less ephemeral, you can shove in a microSD card and the Smile+ will save your shots so you can later edit them in Kodak’s companion app.
It may not be powerful, but the Smile+ sure looks fun.
Colorful Inside and Out
Kodak’s Smile+ is already available on Amazon for $99.99 in six color options, including white, black, pink, green, fuschia, and blue, which remind us a lot of Fujifilm’s fun color choices. It comes with five sheets of instant film so you can give it a test run before you go running off to buy more film packs.
Like with any film camera, instant or not, you’ll quickly find out that buying film is the more expensive part of the entire process. Although in Kodak’s case, you can buy 20-packs for $10, which is a decent rate so long as you’re careful with your shots.
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