'25 thru the lens of a 3DS camera

[Veho]

I completely understand where you are coming from. Something that freed me from your way of thinking was when someone explained that there will always be a photographer at weddings. Anyone can take a "good" picture of the Grand Canyon. But he wanted to see a blurry picture at the statue of Liberty. And then I started to find the art in 3DS pictures.

My kids have one of those instant cameras with a thermal printer, and you get instant black and white prints, and it's a whole different experience of taking pictures. You have to take the limitations into account, think about lighting and contrast (the printer mangles photos so anything underexposed or overexposed ends up straight up a black or a white blob), the framing (you can't zoom or crop or rotate the photo in post), and people love getting a little physical photo so they agree or even ask to pose for photos, and at least until the novelty wears off it's more fun than just snapping pics on a mobile phone.

 

[lightwo]

My kids have one of those instant cameras with a thermal printer, and you get instant black and white prints, and it's a whole different experience of taking pictures. You have to take the limitations into account, think about lighting and contrast (the printer mangles photos so anything underexposed or overexposed ends up straight up a black or a white blob), the framing (you can't zoom or crop or rotate the photo in post), and people love getting a little physical photo so they agree or even ask to pose for photos, and at least until the novelty wears off it's more fun than just snapping pics on a mobile phone.

Ah, I ran across those while browsing. Apparently some of them can be used as low-res USB-UVC webcams too, which reveals they're actually colour cameras (not like it's a huge surprise).

Funny how the conversation went full circle, because that modern printer + camera combo is like a simplified version of Game Boy Camera + Printer, Ninty's first shot at integrating cameras (image source):

 

[Veho]

Ah, I ran across those while browsing. Apparently some of them can be used as low-res USB-UVC webcams too, which reveals they're actually colour cameras (not like it's a huge surprise).

Yes, they are color cameras, they have a color screen and they take and store photos in color, but since the print is the point you're limited by the printer.

You can also connect it to your phone via Bluetooth and print stuff from your phone; beside the point but also kinda neat.