I found that if you get too aggressive with the bleaching, especially with a highlighter, the Thermal properties of the paper *can* be affected, so it’s an artform of restraint. (: 
I found that if you get too aggressive with the bleaching, especially with a highlighter, the Thermal properties of the paper *can* be affected, so it’s an artform of restraint. (:
Wow! A nice series of artistic photos with text! Wonder how you found out about the alcohol trick. Accident or intuition? Haha :)
well, I noticed that some of the stamp pad inks I used on the images had a bleaching effect, so I started trying out different solvents to see which chemical was doing the bleaching. Wasn’t hard to figure out alcohol, though I have no idea how it works other than maybe the fact that it is *cold* and gets colder as it evaporates. Whatever the process is, letting it dry restores the thermal properties of the paper and it can be re-imaged or typed on.
Note that it takes a *lot* of time for the bleaching to work. At least a couple of hours, and in the case of the blue ink in the numbers stamped on the comic panels above, it was over 8 hours before the bleaching became apparent.
I never knew thermal printing cameras were a thing. I play around with Instax instants quite a lot, but thermal seems like a ton of fun, if a bit more ephemeral than real film. You and Gregory have inspired me to hunt one of these toy cameras down myself. -Mitchell F.
I have been expecting something like this for quite awhile, and am delighted that a bunch of Chinese toy makers finally got the clue and started making them. The only sad part is that I can’t put images taken on different cameras on this one to print out. /:
I’ve got one of the Instax printers which allows you to print any image from a phone/ipad. I enjoy it a lot because it turns out better photos than the actual Instax cameras themselves usually. (plus you can manipulate the photos to your hearts content before printing) Hopefully there will be a “hybrid” model of one of these thermal cameras to come out soon which will allow you to do the same. -Mitchell F.
Yes, Let us all know if you find something like that. It would be ideal!
IMHO, the killer feature of these is the low,low cost of thermal papers to print on – that was the thing that kept me from the Instax prints..
I got them on AliExpress. They take ~12 days to arrive, which is pretty darn good for international shipping. There are a ton to choose from.
There are also thermal photo printers (sans camera), but I think many of those are designed to print on thermal sticker paper. May work with the same paper rolls the cameras use.
I decided I didn’t like that lighter section of the prints, so I fiddled with the density. I found 7 was too dark, so I settled on 5. At least in that 5-7 range, I believe there is no lighter section. So for your purposes, you may even try going lighter. The nice thing is, the settings affect the PRINT, not the digital photo, so you can adjust the settings to your heart’s content. The exceptions being the frames and timestamp; those are added to the digital file.
I had no idea you would love the camera so much! It makes me happy to see your creativity unleashed upon the world in a new and exciting way.
I’m having fun with mine at the moment, making a video! The Polaroid Zink cameras and printers do so in color but are also a thermal process. You can process the photos before printing. They are better than these toy B/W thermal prints but not as good as Instax.
hey, I got a thermal camera and me and my son finished 5 rolls already.
Do you recommend any brand/type of thermal roll?
I noticed that the ones that came with the camera are different from the ones a bought on a office supply store and the result is worse, less defined.
I think original roll is glossy, but I’m not sure if there’s glossy thermal paper.
What do you think?
The rolls meant for the camera are a bit better quality than basic receipt paper. You can find it on many retail places. I don’t know a brand to recommend.
thanks for the reply.
I get a bit lost on amazon/aliexpress, so many providers and brands, even the ones destinated to cameras.
I’ll try to get some and give some feedback on later comments.