Canon - IVY Cliq+ Instant Film Camera - Rose Gold

The Canon Ivy Cliq+ is the first instant camera I’ve owned since the 90s; it’s also the first digital version of such a device I’ve used, so I was really interested to see how the quality would stack up versus its retro SLR counterpart. Let’s start off with what I liked about the Ivy Cliq+, namely its compact form factor, simplicity, and ease of use. The camera is basically point-and-shoot, with no zoom or focus controls, no advanced camera settings, nor involved setup. The ring light/flash are set by a physical toggle switch next to the power button, and your only other setting is the photo size: a 2x2 inch square or full 2x3 inch print. After you load in the ZINK paper, charge it up, and power it on, you’re ready to take snaps and have them print instantly. If you want to save your digital images for re-printing or editing later, just load a microSD card up to 256GB and your images will be saved automatically, and a built-in reprint button lets you reprint the last photo taken for instant duplicates to share with friends and family. However, because the unit has no LCD, you cannot review your photos beforehand nor edit them on camera prior to printing. Also, the only way to frame your shot is via the glass viewfinder, or using the 2 inch silver “selfie mirror” situated around the lens when taking selfies. In case you’re wondering, there’s no cancel button if you mess up a shot. So like the instant cameras of yesteryear, there are no take-backsies or do-overs. Once you press that shutter button, you’re committed to getting a print of whatever is captured. The situation is a little bit different if you pair your smartphone via Bluetooth to the Cliq+. When you do this, the camera basically acts as a mobile Bluetooth printer, allowing you to take photos with your smartphone’s camera which, if it’s a contemporary flagship phone, probably has better resolution and quality than the 8MP sensor in the Cliq+ or you can select photos from your device and various online storage and social media sources like Facebook, Google Photos, Drop box, and Instagram (requires you to sign in and connect to those accounts). The app allows you to add text, stickers and borders, or draw on the photos before printing them; you can also apply AR effects and masks when taking photos like those found on Snapchat. If you like your new creation, you can save it for re-printing or sharing later on social media, but it doesn’t do this by default, you have to explicitly hit the save icon. You can also use your phone as a remote control for the camera over Bluetooth, but again, it won’t display what the camera “sees” and once you click the shutter the printer activates instantly. Unless your phone doesn’t have Bluetooth or the camera isn’t as good as the one in the Cliq+, it’s almost always a better option to simply use the camera as just a mobile printer for your smartphone because you have more options and flexibility. In terms of photo quality, I have to say I was not super impressed. For example, I took a selfie in a dark setting with a strong source of light behind me and the contrast was terrible, so I ended up with a blurry photo of a bright white light and dark blob of everything else. There was also some amount of noise and graininess, especially in solid colors, even in well-lit conditions. That’s pretty much what I expected from this camera’s sensor, though, as it lacks all the fancy processing of a full on DSLR. It’s on par with most smartphones' front facing cameras. As for the prints themselves, overall, I found the colors to be on the cool side and slightly washed out, resulting in anemic looking skin tones and loss of saturation. That’s not to say the prints were all bad, but certainly not as true to color as I wanted. That said, the color range was decent for such a small printer that doesn’t use any ink cartridges, which I think speaks to the quality of the paper. Prints can be fairly expensive though, as the ZINK refills are not cheap. The camera only fits 10 sheets at a time, so you’ll have to reload the camera after every 10 photos. For what these prints are, a fun, fast way to share tangible photos on small format instantly, it’s a neat little gadget that produces decent enough pictures; it has a fairly wide angle lens for group selfies and is small enough to slip in a pocket, purse, or bag. I did like that each print is a sticker, which I think would be appealing to younger folks since you can peel and stick your photos/creations to notebooks, binders, and other surfaces as cute mementos. For use as an everyday camera though, it’s not great because you can’t take photos without paper loaded, meaning you’ll always end up with at least 1 print of every photo you take, whether you like it or not.

I love it! I use it for my film journal and it’s so convenient. So light I get scared of dropping it. The app is really easy to use. Overall one of the best purchases ever.

My ten year old loves her new camera. It prints right from the cameras itself. The color is pretty. Perfect for a young girl or boy that likes to take pictures.

The ivy cliq+ is a FUN camera with some great features. There are actually a lot of nice features to this camera, that I will try to comment on. The ivy cliq+ is an 8mp digital instant print camera, that uses a special type of film/paper called "Zink" papers. The cool thing about this paper is that it is very similar to the old instant film cameras. There is no additional ink or print supplies needed to buy, just the paper. The camera can hold 10 sheets at a time. The other neat feature of this paper is that it also doubles as a sticker, just peel off the backing and stick anywhere. The adhesive is actually pretty good. The prints are also smudge, water and tear resistant. I dowsed one section of one of my prints in water, and also tried to tear it. The prints never smudged, but did get left with a water mark type stain on the picture, that isn't terribly noticeable. It also took several attempts at trying to tear the print with moderate effort. only once did I actually rip the print, the other times, the paper just warped and stretched. So really a good job on how durable these prints are. So lets talk about the picture quality of the prints. The camera is 8mp, so technically you could print up to an 11x14 photo, but with the instant printer you can only print up to a 2x3 print, for obvious reasons. However if you insert a micro SD card into the camera , you can bring that card anywhere to print larger photos of your favorite pics. The pictures saved to the SD card are actually pretty good quality with detail, contrast and color. However when printed off the camera, some details are missed, I noticed a lot of prints came off looking overexposed, even though the digital image was not. The printer prints at 314x600dpi, which is pretty good for the size of the printer. I am including a picture comparison of images taken directly from the camera and printed vs images taken from my smart phone, and then printed via the cool "mini print" app, that Canon has available in the app store. The pictures on the left are directly from the camera, the left top is with the flash, left bottom is without the flash. The pictures on the right were taken with my phone (non edited) and printed directly to the ivy cliq+. Oddly enough if you look at the quality of the "digital" pictures taken by the ivy cliq+, and then the prints done from the phone to the printer, the ones from the phone look to print better. The odd thing is, that when you instant print directly from the camera, some of that quality is lost, and there is no way to fine tweak any of the related settings to fix this. Although, the camera is supposed to be more of a simple point and shoot device. Speaking of that, I have noticed that you don't need to wait completely for your print to finish before taking another picture, you just have to wait till it starts printing, about 5seconds. My biggest complaint , however, is the fact that even though you can have a memory card inserted into the camera, once you run out of paper, there is no way to take any kind of additional pictures. If they added a button to toggle the instant print feature, so pictures you don't really want printed right now, could still be saved to memory, that would be awesome. There is also no way to preview any of the pictures from the camera before they are printed (hence the "instant" feature, I guess), but still that would be nice if at least they could be viewed on your smart phone before snapping the photo to see if your shot is going to be too overexposed, or blurry. But to be fair this camera is not marketed as a high end art photography option. It's marketed as a FUN novelty camera that is great to have at parties and any type of friend gatherings. When using the "mini print" app, you can add a ton of special effects to your photos, like stickers, funny distortions, and lots more. Making your prints even more fun and memorable. Overall I think this camera is really quite enjoyable with all the features it offers, my kids love being able to stick pictures of our pets anywhere. It's really a cool thing to have, and can't wait to see what features will be added in future models!

This ivy Cliq + camera is great to take anywhere , take pictures and print them out on the spot, with this version of the ivy Cliq + you’re able to even print pictures from your mobile device throughout the Canon mini print app. Inside the box you get 10 printer paper with peel and stick back , usb cable , but for the price , it doesn’t include a micro sd card, you would have to buy it separately. The camera is fun for people that wants to make fun pictures and stick them on your fridge , but the camera only holds 10 printer paper so it’s kind of disappointing since the mini paper is not that cheap, also make sure you don’t loose the smart sheet that goes inside the camera underneath the printing paper. Another thing that’s disappointing is that the camera doesn’t have a preview screen to see your pictures before printing , so you may waste paper just taking pictures until you see the one you like after it print.

If you have the need for the immediate gratification of a small (wallet size print) this is for you. But the cost of prints is pretty significant ($0.50 each) and the quality is pretty good. But it's kind of like the dancing bear, you don't judge based on the quality of the bears dance, rather your amazed that the bears trying to dance, and is a bear! This tiny camera/printer is the dancing bear. Much as we were amazed by the instant prints of Polaroids in the 60's and 70's. This version does not use any smeary chemicals, rather the paper uses tiny crystals that change color when exposed to heat. The camera/printer holds 10 sheets of this special photo paper, which has a peel off adheasive back. Each is 2"x3", and suprisingly not easy to damage. But this digital camera is unlike most digital cameras you have used (recently), there is no way to review what pictures you've taken on it. It can only store 3 images, unless you add a SD card, in which case the card will store your images. But you really have to look at this camera more as a printer which can take a picture too. The Canon mini print app allows you to print any image on your phone, or to take a new image with your phone, it can also pull images from your FaceBook, Instagram, DropBox, iDrive or Google Photo account. So you can see why the camera is mor of a printer than a Camera. But I got it to take to a wedding, I thought it would be a lot of fun to collect photos for the bride and groom, and to pass the camera around for guests to take their own selfies. I also think that my grandson might have some fun taking pictures of his own. The camera has a special led illuminator ring for taking selfies, it should prevent red eye. the back of the camara has some texture on it, the front it very smooth. When printing the led on the top provides some entertainment by cycling throught many colors. It takes about 30s before the picture starts printing and another 20 to complete printing. The app can queue several prints while waiting for previous prints to finish, well thought out. The app also allows you to add borders, edit images, add text and "stamps" to images. It also allows you to save these editied images. A couple of things I wish they supported, if you plug the camera into your PC with the supplied cable it allows you to charge the camera, but the camera and it's media is not seen by your computer (the documentation says this should work but I could not get it to work, on multiple computers). There is no easy way to tell how much charge the camera has, their is a icon that shows the connection status to your phone, but no charging % charged status information. There is no screw hole to allow you to use the camera with a tripod. The app has a remote camera trigger, I wish it would warn you, your about to take a picture ok? The timer 3/5/10 works much better. Given the camera weight in at 7oz with paper loaded, its pretty amazing. I'm not sure how often I need a 2"x"3" photo, or how often I'll spend 50c for one, we'll see how much fun it is at a wedding, or other special events. I suspect I'm make a lot of new friends with it, just wish the paper was not so expensive (on price break as you buy more either).

I used to love Polaroid pictures when I was a kid. My dad had a couple over the years and I loved getting the instant print and watching it develop. This Canon camera is cooler, next-century update. The camera itself is pretty and has a simple form factor. It’s slim enough to put into a purse, but a little too large to put in a pocket unless your a guy with normal sized pockets. Taking a picture is literally one click, then it takes about 30 seconds for the print to come out. The print is cool in that you don’t need to use ink - it’s somehow built into the paper. The paper is about $.50 a sheet so not cheap but not too pricey. there is also an app from Canon that lets you take pictures with your phone and use the camera as a mini-printer. The pictures have a peel off back so you can stick them anywhere as well. The app also lets you add flair, like text bubbles, silly glasses etc. a la Snapchat. I’m looking forward to using it at parties and handing out actual pictures to friends - they will love it!

This is a instant camera will be capable of printing 2x3-inch and now 2x2-inch Zink prints that is user selectable with a button. Users can also easily reprint the last photo again with a new reprint button. It's a 8-megapixel camera that features a square selfie mirror and auto-flash. There's a microSD slot for capturing and exporting photos and a USB port for charging. Another added feature is the ability to use Bluetooth and connect to the free Canon Mini Print App to print images on the IVY CLIQ+ from smartphones. These are really cool features on this modern version of a Polaroid and in my case, the ability to print from my Canon printer (which is very user friendly) is highly desirable since I feel the 2x3 pictures from camera itself are just too small and rather print regular 8x5 picture. As far the 8 meg camera picture quality is concern, is pretty good outside but not great in low light indoors as the look dark and grainy. This is good for selfie adventurers outside or maybe creating work related ID's but picture size should be at least 4x6 minimal.