iPhone Photo Prints – Printstagram Miniprints Product Review

I wish I remembered how I was introduced to the Printstagram service, but as soon as I saw it, I was really excited, as I have been all over Instagram since I got my iPhone.  (Follow my photos on Twitter here.) Since I have loved Polaroid for a long time (I have at least 2 Polaroid cameras and am hoarding the film I have left), I was excited at the prospect of taking my cute Instagram photos and getting hard copies of them, so I ordered the Printstagram miniprints.  Also, they look totally cute in the picture above.

My main issue with Printstagram at this point is the speed of shipping and lack of shipping options.  I ordered and paid $6 for shipping to a US address.  I ordered on July 29th, and received my prints on August 15th.  The Printstagram website does warn that orders take 2-3 weeks, but I think it’s unreasonable to not offer expedited service if someone is willing to pay for it.  I’m assuming that Printstagram will be working on additional options in the near future.  They are shipping product from China, so I can imagine that expedited shipping will be pricey.

Here’s a shot of my little box of 48 Printstagram miniprints.  The quality of these is not exactly what I expected – but I spent part of yesterday scanning over 100 Polaroids from my own collection, so the feel of Polaroids was fresh in my mind.  These are solid and matte, as they are simply printed cards.  It’s not shown here, but the back looks like a Polaroid, in shades of gray, which is a really nice touch from Printstagram for the miniprints.  The stock quality is quite good, they are stiff and should hold up to some abuse, and the colors look very true to the original photos.

Here’s a photo I took of some of the prints, with a regular-sized Sharpie next to them so you can get an idea of scale.  While there are pictures that can be used for scale on the Printstagram website, I still was a bit surprised by the smallness of the prints.  I can’t blame anyone else for that but myself though.

Overall, I do still wish that I had received these faster, but I am very happy with what I received.  Printstagram also offers other products including a poster, stickers, minibooks and tinybooks.  They are all very cute but they will all take a few weeks to arrive.

What I would like to do now is to try a number of other Instagram printing services – I am especially intrigued by Artflakes and Instamaker, so I’ll have to try those next.

My set of 48 miniprints from Printstagram cost $12 + $6 shipping.