Does the Polaroid Snap automatically print when you take a picture?

Polaroid is a name that instantly inspires a healthy dose of nostalgia for any child of the 80s. The funny looking cameras that could immediately print out your photos with a cool little border to hold onto so you could share it around quickly became a household name. I still have Polaroid photos from my childhood that I pull out around the holidays. Now, here we are thirty years later and Polaroid is still making cameras to help capture all of life's best moments. The cameras may look a little different but the function, and more importantly the fun, is still very much here.

The Polaroid Snap looks a bit more like an old-school digital camera (are they old enough to call "old-school" yet?), if you still remember what those were. Instead of the more traditional square photos the Snap takes pictures in a 2-by-3 inch landscape format. The instant printing function still works the same way though. As soon as you press down the big shutter button, the camera will automatically focus, properly expose, and capture the picture, then instantly print it out for you. This is the same technology in all the instant print cameras out there.

As cool as this is, there may be times where you don't want to print out every single photo you take but unfortunately, this is not an option on the Snap. Polaroid has not built an option into the camera for you to turn off the auto printing feature. Really the only way to avoid it is just to not have any paper in the camera. Each picture will automatically print out as soon as you take it.

If you want the ability to pick and choose which photos you want to print, you'll need to upgrade to the Snap Touch camera. The Snap Touch is a bit more expensive but it also offers some better features. As you might guess from the name, the Snap Touch brings in an LCD touchscreen to the back of the camera to act as a viewfinder and control center for the camera. With the touchscreen, Polaroid has enabled the ability to turn off the automatic printing ability if you choose so you can make sure you get just the right picture before you print it.

In addition to the touch screen, the Snap Touch ups the megapixel count for the lens to 13 megapixels and best of all, it brings Bluetooth connectivity so you can connect it up to your phone. If you download the Polaroid App, it will open up a whole new world of creative photography for you to have fun with. You'll just have to decide if that is worth the extra cost.