New instant cameras are a throwback to Polaroids

Remember Polaroids?

New cameras on the market are a bit of a throwback to the instant classic.

Unless you're really on top of printing, your photos can get lost on your smartphone.

So welcome back the instant print camera. They come in two types.

“There’s Instax, which is a lot like the Polaroid cameras that you probably remember,” said Consumer Reports’ Jake Swearingen. “Then there’s something called Zink -- for zero ink -- which is basically a little bit like a photo printer attached to a digital camera.”

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With Instax film, the chemicals that develop the photo are in the paper. You just wait for it to come to life.

With Zink cameras, photos emerge ready to go. And Zink film has a little added bonus.

“The other fun part is that you can actually peel the back off on most of these, and they’re stickers so you can put them up anywhere you like,” Swearingen said.

Zink cameras also save your images to an SD card in the camera, so you can make as many prints as you want.

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Consumer Reports checked out six instant cameras, comparing things like image quality and auto focus.

Experts found a few drawbacks to “instant” photography.

“With these instant cameras, you’re not going to get high quality photos by any stretch,” Swearingen said.

And it can be a little expensive.

Expect to pay anywhere from 66 cents to $1.15 for each standard color Instax print and about 50 cents for each Zink print.

Consumer Reports suggests trying to buy the film in bulk to save money.

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The best all-around option, Consumer Reports says, is the $99 Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6.

The Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 was cheap and fun for about 60-dollars, according to Consumer Reports.

If you plan to use an Instax camera, don’t shake it like a Polaroid; that can actually mess up your print.

For Zink cameras, Consumer Reports likes the Canon Ivy Cliq for $80.