Poor Man's Polaroid | Hacker News Reader

Poor Man's Polaroid

boxart.lt

252 pointsZacnyLos56 comments

I made this thing, appreciate the attention and kind words, to answer some questions/concerns:

- Paper is BPA free, got it from here https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0932QVYBQ

- Photos do have a lifetime, although no idea how long, the ones I have for a while seem to do better than the average store receipt

- It's not really _poor man's_ polaroid, but as someone else mentioned, price difference is not that big, while a single photo is a LOT cheaper

And there's a permalink for english language, in case OP or someone else can update it - https://boxart.lt/en/blog/poor_mans_polaroid

> Paper is BPA free, got it from here

For those as paranoid as myself:

Common BPA substitutes, often used in "BPA-free" products, include Bisphenol S (BPS), Bisphenol F (BPF), Bisphenol AF (BPAF), and Bisphenol Z (BPZ). While marketed as safer alternatives, these analogs often share similar endocrine-disrupting properties and structural similarities to BPA, raising concerns about "regrettable substitution".

I don’t let my kids come in contact with anything “BPA Free” and we avoid plastics as much as possible.

How customizeable is the programming of the thermal printers? Whenever I see the dot prints of these thermal print cameras I wonder if I could make it look better using more modern dithering algorithms, e.g. Ostromoukhov dithering:

https://observablehq.com/@jobleonard/variable-coefficient-di...

Do thermal prints still use materials that are endocrine disruptors, I don't know. But something to consider. https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/human-exp...

It's been regulated since 2020 in Europe at least.

> As part of the EU’s REACH Regulation Annex XVII, a restriction banning Bisphenol A (BPA) content in thermal paper above 0.02% by weight came into effect on January 2, 2020. This prohibition was implemented due to health concerns associated with BPA exposure

bpa free thermal paper is pretty easy to source from anywhere now because of this.

From my understanding, BPA was just replaced either a similar chemicals https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259018262...

If the law calls out BPA exclusively and not a more general description, it’s just a false sense of safety.

Yes it specifically limits the sale and use of Bisphenol A. The obvious alternatives Bisphenol S and Bisphenol F are not mentioned.

https://reach-info.ineris.fr/sites/snar-reach/files/pdf/anne...

The ones I've been able to source easily are Phenol-Free, which used to be a pain to find before the eu ban, those are (I think) bpa and bps free at least. I'll need to double check to be certain though, I haven't considered them replacing BPA woth BPS, that definitely makes it a false sense of safety

Yeah I was excited about such a project concept until I saw it was thermal printer. Would love a little Polaroid type camera with inexpensive film for my kids to play with, but I don’t want them playing with thermal paper, kids put literally everything in their mouths.

Fuji Instax Mini is probably the closest you'll get right now. But, the film isn't exactly cheap.

This brand claims to be fully recyclable:

https://www.koehlerpaper.com/en/products/Thermal-paper/TH_Bl...

It supposedly works by using a layer of reflective bubbles that collapses when exposed to heat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc1mlCThevg&t=20s

Of course, I don't know how those bubbles are made or how they are made to collapse from heat, so for all I know that layer still uses chemicals that currently slip through regulations. But I can also imagine that it is doable to create such a "functional layer" with safe materials.

One shop network used blue paper here but changed to white some time ago.

Contrast was not great but I guess the price was the reason for the change.

Here seems to be some examples of printed images on Blue4est paper[1].

[1]: https://thermalprintcameras.wordpress.com/blue4est-paper/

2017 EPA Award as well :

https://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/green-chemistry-challenge...

Note that this is an existing product category, usually cheap too.

Lots of examples here: https://thermalprintcameras.wordpress.com

Of course one can still want to hack something like this yourself for fun or other reasons.

If you're using mobile, there's an "English" button in the menu.

Note to website owner - it could be nice to have a permalink to the English version.

Hey, I enjoyed reading about the spausdintuvu and power banko.

The English seems to be "cleaned up" compared to the English translation.

"I forgot to take a photo before I started humping one of printers"

Nice project!

But this is definitely NOT for a poor man. Poor people buy a $20 camera on Amazon.

A time-rich person can afford this camera.

Polaroid film costs about 1 euro for them, and a thermal image costs about 1 cent. After enough photos, it cancels out

Sure, but what about other costs. You can pick up a poloroid for about $50-75 on ebay. With this one, you will need to buy things like a 3D printer (and the necessary accessories, like filament), the rasperry pi, battery pack, printer, etc. Yes, the thermal paper is cheaper over all, but the cost will be a lot more up front, even if it work out over time. Don't get me wrong, this is a cool toy, but the title is definitely a bit off.

There's plenty of services that 3D print for you.

This comment is sponsored by JLCPCB

While I did just buy a 3D printer, I want to enlighten the community: many public libraries now have maker spaces. I recommend checking those out if you want to do one off stuff

The printer is about 20 euro, raspberry pi zero is currently 10 euro, pi zero camera is 14 euro. I don't know how much 3d printing services cost, since i have my own printer. Powerbank depends on which powerbank you choose. Cost difference is probably less than you'd expect

You can buy a camera with an integrated thermal printer for 20$ or even less.

Sveikinimai lietuviskam projektui HN pirmam puslapy ;) dziugu geras projektas

Retas LT W :D

Ačiū, gerbiamieji:)

Nice build. There are cheap (<$20) commercial versions, often targeted at kids. They make fantastic gifts, I thought it would be a bit of a gimmick but having instant printouts capturing happy moments added a fun dynamic to a few family trips, and our fridge is covered with an ever-rotating cast of family pics. And because they're ~free, it overcomes the blocker of a polaroid having to be 'special' while still keeping some constraints vs just snapping a cellphone pic.

Funny, it's not two days that I've published what I called 'we have Polaroid at home' https://www.printables.com/model/1622259-14mm-label-tape-pic...

Note it's just a 3D printable stand for tiny printer labels (16mm wide). It was a literal 5 minute project but I liked the retro and restrictive aesthetic enough to share..

Such printer as shown is an absolute bargain at £15

One should know that thermopaper contains Bisphenol A aka BPA.

You can buy phenol-free thermopaper if you are concerned

Is there a way to actually verify that? I still don't trust that just because it says it on the label.

Is it free of all phenols or just free of Bisphenol A? I ask because there are very similar Bisphenols (S and F) that are at least suspected of being just as bad as BPA and they are not banned or limited by REACH Annex XVII.

Unless you're in Europe.

so unless you're buying old rolls, or from non reputable sources, it shouldn't be an issue in the EU at least.

I thought that it was just replaced with similar molecules such as BPS, which has been shown to have equally bad effects.

i think census generally is that it may well be worse, but ATLEAST as bad

I’m fairly certain that a large percentage of people who buy thermal printer for fun do so from China, which has no regulations on thermal paper.

(1) So many people have told me they thought Polaroid film was crazy expensive

(2) There are the BPA concerns other people talk about but thermal prints don't age well at all. I made some prints of Pokemon characters about 5 years ago like this one

https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=1821741

and these are barely legible now. (Pokemon sample art is designed on the assumption that their art is going to be viewed on horrible screens, I'm going to argue that Lusamine respects Ansel Adams' "Zone Theory" really well which makes it work great as a thermal print)

Looking at all ready-made options on Amazon and elsewhere - anyone who will roll out an adult-oriented well-made single-button camera that takes in standard thermal paper rolls will make a fortune. This is such a great thing to have for get-togethers and parties. But it's essential to not being bound by $X/shot proprietary cartridges and be able to shoot and snap without thinking. Mementos for everyone!

* ... without thinking of costs involved. $2 per polaroid with half of them not even developing properly is a bit too high for spontaneous photography urges.

The whole ‘shoot with thinking’ is one of the values to me. On top of, of course, the direct printing.

Fun project. But if you just want the end result, you can buy one of these thermopaper toy cameras on Amazon for like $20.

I bought such a thing for my daughter and it's great fun but this old codger will never cease to be amazed at how much tech is available for such a small amount of money - the digital camera functions normally, takes video too, the system has basic games and a vivid LCD screen and there's a thermal printer - all in a cute moulded package. £25 ours cost.

One of my kids just got a $13 “smart watch” which has a touch screen, camera with filters/editor, microSD storage, plays MP3s, records voice memos, has games, and more I’m probably forgetting.

It absolutely blows my mind how cheap tech is these days.

Can you post a link or maybe just the name? I'm curious!

Funny story comes to my mind, I bought my daughter Instax because I was pretty sure it is digital, i.e. has a printer inside. However, I had trouble finding the resolution of the printer there... When we got it, I understood this is real photography paper, not a printer at all!

If you got a recent digital one it actually does print on the photography paper. I'm guessing it works like a line scanner but in reverse, using color LEDs to "print" light dots in high resolution on the paper.

this is a great idea and wonderful execution, inspiring others(me) to build one!

The use of thermal paper was surprising. Great idea, indeed.

This is a really inspiring project and exactly the type of content I'm looking for on Hacker News.

A bit surprising that so many people in the comments would rather see links to cheap temu polaroid knockoffs.

Reminds me a lot of https://mitxela.com/projects/thermal_paper_polaroid

Too bad the thermal prints may not last very long.

There are actually cheap pocketable good quality bluetooth photo printers one can buy.

This is already available on online shops.

Obligatory "be careful with that poisonous paper" warning[1]

[1]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

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