Photo Creator Instant Camera review: capture magical moments with fun kids’ camera

Overall rating: 4/5

Price on writing: £70 | Buy now on Amazon

What we like

• A fun first camera for budding photographers

• Comes with enough paper to print 250+ photographs

• Quick to print 

• Ink-free

• Comes with stickers and pens to customise camera and photos

What we don’t like

• Paper quality isn’t as good as some other instant cameras

• Only prints in black and white

Key specs

User level: 8+ years | Megapixels: 12 | Lens type: Close-up | LCD screen size: 20.1 cm | Max video resolution: 720p | Waterproof: No | Battery: Rechargeable battery included

What Mumsnet users say

“Im getting this for mine. Dont have it yet but its been recommended by a friend [...] its more of a paper roll than polaroid but my girl is 6 so like you I knew the set of 10 would be wasted in 5 min of nothing much.” Recommended by Brighteyedtriangle

Our verdict

If you have any budding young photographers at home who are desperate for their first camera to hone their skills, then the Photo Creator Instant Camera is a solid choice.

The camera is very easy to set up and use and children will be able to replace the paper rolls themselves. A built-in thermal printer means that there is no ink to make a mess, nor cost a fortune to replace. The Photo Creator Instant Camera comes with a very generous four rolls of paper, which is enough to print around 250 photos. Although if your children are anything like mine, you may find they burn through this pretty quickly. But never fear, as a refill pack containing 10 paper rolls (enough for a whopping 700+ photos) can be purchased from Amazon for a very reasonable £10 at the time of writing (February 19th, 2024). However, the included micro SD card also gives kids the option to take photos without printing them, so the camera can still be used even if you have run out of paper.

It’s a shame the camera only prints in black and white, with the photos coming out like till receipts rather than a traditional photograph, but kids will have great fun customising the pictures with the included pens and sticker sheet. 

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What’s in the box?

• 1 camera

• 1 USB cable

• 1 wrist strap

• 4 thermal paper rolls

• 1 sticker sheet

• 4 marker pens

• 1 micro SD/TF 4GB card

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What’s the Photo Creator Instant Camera like to set up?

The setting up process was quite straightforward. I charged the camera using the USB cable that was included in the box. Once the camera was up to full power, I put the micro SD card in the slot, which can be found next to the charging port. The card saves the pictures taken but it’s not essential for printing. I then opened the flap at the front and popped a roll of paper in, leaving 5cm of paper hanging out of the front. 

Once the camera is ready, it is switched on by pressing and holding the power button and the settings button will take you to the settings menu. The plus and minus buttons selects the different type of settings, including image quality, language, date and time, touch tone, format and print density. Pressing the shutter button confirms the choice

I used the camera with the image quality on it’s top setting, to ensure we got the very best results from the printing function. To use the print function, the user presses the print button to take a photo, a three-second timer starts and hey presto, the image is printed and ready to tear off the paper roll straight away.

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What’s the Photo Creator Instant Camera like in day-to-day use?

My four-year-old and six-year-old were very excited to test an instant camera. While my eldest enjoyed taking selfies with the back lens and experimenting with the 20 different frames, my youngest was more interested in taking photos of other people using the print function and proceeding to decorate each image with the enclosed stickers and pens. Her artistic touches involved giving her subjects multicoloured hair and ‘lipstick’ which left everyone looking like The Joker from Batman. She burned through the stickers quickly too. The recommended user age for the Photo Creator Instand Camera is eight years and up, so older kids may produce some more artistic doodlings than an over-excited four-year-old. That said, she found the camera straightfoward to use and found her way around the controls easily.

If you would like to keep your kids' best snaps (or do a bulk delete to clear space), the files can be transferred to a laptop using the micro-USB cable.

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Are there any special features on the Photo Creator Instant Camera?

The main special feature of the Photo Creator Instant Camera is not the printing function, but more the personalisation aspect. I guess a similar effect could be achieved with marker pens or a sheet of stickers that you may already have at home, but where’s the fun in that?

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Is the Photo Creator Instant Camera good value for money?

Priced at around the £70 mark at the time of writing (February 19th), I would say this feels reasonable for the amount of photo paper that is included.  

To see how the Photo Creator Instant Camera compares to other leading kids’ cameras, check out our comprehensive guide to the best kids' camera as recommended by parents.

About the author

Laura Cooke is a Content Editor at Mumsnet, with a special focus on child’s play, outdoor play and toddler play content.

Laura started writing Swears By articles for Mumsnet in 2021, writing buyers guides and product reviews to help Mumsnetters make informed choices when it comes to parting with their pennies.

Laura is also a freelance journalist and has written articles for publications including the Daily Mirror, the i, Metro, Stylist and Happiful magazine.

About Mumsnet Reviews

All Mumsnet product reviews are written by real parents after weeks of research and testing. We work hard to provide honest and independent advice you can trust. Sometimes, we earn revenue through affiliate (click-to-buy) links in our articles. However, we never allow this to influence our coverage.