The Canon Ivy Cliq 2 is a portable printer/point and shoot camera all in one. It features a Zink (zero ink) 2x3” instant printer. The camera comes with 10 sheets of the paper in the box, with paper readily available on the market (at around $0.50/print). The camera has an expandable memory storage slot for microSD cards (up to 256GB).
The Cliq 2 has similar features to the previous generation but has seen a number of tweaks. Gone are the duplicate/reprint and the aspect ratio buttons, and instead are replaced by filters and borders. The loss of the aspect ratio is minor, but the reprint is noticeable loss. The Cliq 2’s filter button allows you to toggle between a regular exposure, vivid (brighter colors, softer image), and B&W. The border button literally adds a border to the photo to give it a polaroid look. The Cliq 2 is pretty similar to the last generation. Both feature 700mAh rechargeable batteries, 5MP sensors, manual viewfinder, and an auto flash. That’s really where the similarities end though.
The Cliq 2 has a smaller aperture (F2.2 vs 2.4) which helps reduce blur at the expense of image appearing darker. It seems they have tried to balance this with a higher ISO range for dealing with lower light situations. The 2 also features a wider angle lens (2.6 vs 24mm focal length) making group selfies easier to pull off. The printer also received an upgrade. Print times remain the same (50 sec), but the print resolution has increased from 314x500 dpi to 314x600 dpi. Lastly the most notable upgrade is the large selfie mirror that surrounds the camera lens – this feature was originally on available on the Cliq+.
The microSD utilization also appears to be different. From what I could find the original Cliq didn’t allow you to take pictures if you ran out of paper. That seems bonkers to have such a limitation. The Cliq 2 does not have that issue at all. If you run out of paper you can keep snapping away like you would with a point and shoot. If you still have paper in the camera but don’t want an image printed, you can pop the paper out, close the cover, and take your picture. This image will be stored on the SD card, but not printed. To that point you can only print pictures as you take them – you cannot print from storage. Also if you use a filter or add a border the camera stores 2 files on the memory card. One file is the image that would be printed with the filter/border, and the other file is the untouched version. You can snap away in B&W and still have the color version available. The modified images start with IME_1XXX.jpg while the standard versions are named IMG_1XXX.jpg. This is pretty nice to be honest.
Image quality for the camera is average. You need to keep a steady hand and avoid shooting moving subjects, and then you get a fairly clear image. The 5MP resolution is nothing to write home about, but the goal is to print a 2X3” image, so the resolution doesn’t need to be really high. The camera struggles in low light situations, so they really should be avoided. The B&W filter does a nice job in medium light, but gets a bit washed out in super bright lighting situations. In medium/low light I feel like your best chance at a good image is the B&W filter. The standard and vivid filters both look good in medium to bright lights. The colors popped more in vivid when I used it on an overcast day versus the standard. The vivid filter takes some sharpness out of the images and leaves them a bit softer.
So what is the purpose of this camera? I set out to find it over the last few days and I think I did. I went to 2 outdoor outings over the weekend. An outdoor fall party with my kids and their grandparents, and the other with my GF at a brewery – doing our best to stay distanced though. At the fall party I took a couple pics of my kids with some Halloween decorations and was able to give the prints to Grandma for her scrap book – the peel and stick photo paper came to good use here. I took pictures of the other kids and gave parents the prints, and people seemed to enjoy it and find it to be neat. The other outing was a doggo costume contest at brewery. We brought our dog in a pirate outfit and had a number of kids coming over to pet him. I took a pic using the selfie mirror of the GF and I and waited for it to print. The kids saw it print out and asked if I could take their pictures with my dog so they could have prints as well. They were super excited and it made their day to get the little prints to take home.
So what did I learn from this? This camera is a really neat novelty. People at parties love it, kids love it, and I got to spread some joy. Would I use this camera day to day – no because my smart phone is more convenient. But that’s not what this is for. I have really nice Canon mirrorless EOS and Nikon mirrorless that get pulled out only when the occasion is right - even though they are my best cameras. The Cliq 2 is similar in that regard – the occasion has to be right to use it. If you use this as a basis for explaining the camera then it becomes easier to see its value.
This is a fun camera that takes decent pictures and prints them out on the go. Based on this view point I think it’s a good platform. It has some drawbacks – I wish the reprint button was still a thing, viewfinder is a little awkward, no way to cancel a print, and print costs. If you buy this camera with the right intentions I think you would be pleased with how it performs.