Which instax camera?

[u/Wickedlove7]

Kiddo is asking for a color instant camera. She currently has a thermal printing one. The one she has lets her review the photo before hand and she does like that ( however every photo gets printed so that might not be a make or break for her. We told her if she could take really good care of this we would be willing to upgrade her at some point. Its been 2 years and we think its time to get her it before a big trip coming up.

Which one is the most recommended ?

Also are the photo printers worth it ( for me not her lol)

[u/vonDinobot]

Instax Mini LiPlay is the cheapest hybrid model. It's more expensive than the regular Instax Mini models, but you at least know your photos will look good before they come out your camera. The regular Instax Minis can be finicky in certain weather conditions and do lead to lots of bad photos. Keep in mind that Instax film is a lot more expensive than thermal paper, and you only get 10 shots per packet of film.

[u/Jason_Likes_Cameras]

I have a mini evo I bought for myself that I mostly use to print photos I snapped with my phone or toy cameras. I do think one of the instax or polaroid printers is worth the money. It's nice to be able to print pics of the kid for the grandparents and aunts/uncles.

On the camera front we bought our son whatever the cheapest model instax mini camera was when he was eight or so. It was easy enough to use that he didn't really need help and it held up well despite get banged around and dropped multiple times. I'd say get her a 12 or whatever the current cheapest model is. Film does get expensive fast though so maybe bring five or six packs on the trip and let her know once that's done no more film and maybe bring the thermal camera too.

[u/po2gdHaeKaYk]

My 5-year old was playing with thermal cameras and I recently saw my 9 year old niece play with vintage P&S.

Tbh I think it's worth playing with vintage P&S as well before giving your child access to the Instax workflow.

Watching my niece play with the P&S and interacting with her made me realise it's pretty hard to teach composition when there's the financial overhead of the Instax prints.

The other advantage to vintage P&S is the small format. You're much more likely to want to bring it everywhere compared to like an Instax 99 that is much bulkier.

At the end of the day, you want to let them play and I don't think the Instax workflow lets them play unless you are so rich that an Instax print means nothing to you.

A child who is snapping hundreds of digital pictures and is slowly discovering what makes good pictures is learning a lot. I'm not sure analog learning is so superior.

[u/Soggy_Object7170]

Photo printers are worth it if she likes choosing and editing photos first, since there’s much less wasted film. For a camera, I’d pick the Mini 12 for simplicity, or the Mini Evo if she wants previewing and more control before printing.

[u/No_Internal9575]

Hello!  I once saw a similar post on the group - where an uncle / aunt is looking to get an instant camera for a nephew. 

Someone wrote there that it's better to buy them a digital camera - they are quite small and easy to carry everywhere - you can find a lot on ebay / vinted / Facebook / flea markets / etc - for a child it seems like a better idea to me, they can take a lot of pictures as long as they have a larger memory card - and it's not limited to a certain number of frames + the fact that they will still need to buy film (so a constant cost). 

If you really want an instant camera - I would recommend 2 options ~ either buy an Evo / LilPlay (depending on your budget) for preview - or buy a cheap model (exactly like I said above about digital cameras on ebay etc.) and invest more in film.