Fashion in its truest sense follows only one quote – “Change is inevitable”. And, so it changes! With time, with seasons, with new trends that come and go, fashion changes, evolves and sometimes revisits the past. And, from time to time it is necessary to honour not just the changing design parameters of the country but also the unparalleled contribution of those who have helped shape India’s fashion landscape by the fashion design council of India.
The 30th annual Amazon India fashion week is currently underway in Delhi with exhibitions from famous designers from all over the country. Almost 100 designers are exhibiting their designs keeping in mind their narrative on the runway and the exhibit area. The event is so vibrant and dynamic that it captures the attention of anyone present there. I being an avid photographer had to be there. I just couldn’t miss this great opportunity of capturing the county’s best at doing what they do best. And, with all its rich colours the Amazon India fashion week is any photographer’s dream place to be. As always, I was accompanied by my fashionista wife – Miss Bloggess aka Neha Chawla.
While you see and capture hundreds of images and an equal number of people in a day at an event. You and those people love to see their photographs and it is not possible for you to contact everyone afterwards, is it? You cannot be taking numbers or email IDs of everyone you meet at an event. Also, a Polaroid camera doesn’t always serve the purpose.
To avoid all these hiccups, this time I carried with me the new HP sprocket portable photo printer. This funky, new era, nifty and tiny gadget that serves the purpose of a machine 50 times its size.
It is a portable printer that prints sticky back photos of the size of 3” ×2”. A very small gadget almost the size of a power bank is very easy to carry and gets easily charged via USB cable. The battery lasts for almost 3 hours, that if you use it continuously for printing so the battery backup is amazing.
The quality of the photographs is top notch. I printed almost 45-50 photographs and all of them had brilliant quality. The photos need to have a good exposure to be printed properly but that is not the device’s shortcoming. Its Zink paper that prints images darker than what you see on your phone’s screen.
The Zink paper used in Sprocket 100 comes with a sticky back that sticks to almost any surface. You can at one go load only 10-15 papers so you might have to carry more pages if you are out on a trip or printing. And, since there is no ink involved it is a cakewalk to carry it anywhere along with its prerequisites. I was carrying around 60 zink sheets so had no trouble.
The printed photos dry in a jiffy so one doesn’t have to worry about smudging, plus they are splash resistant so no headache if they get wet.
The device is extremely user-friendly with easy to operate and even more easy to carry it.
How to operate the device:-
- Switch on the device with the power button available.
- Connect your phone or tablet with the device via Bluetooth.
- Slide back the lid and place the zink paper face up.
You are good to go.
The device operates through the sprocket app available on Google Play or the Apple AppStore. It is extremely easy to use the app and becoming even more easy with the HP software team working constantly to improve user experience having already introduced two updates.
The photos have a removable sticky background that turns them into fun memories. Through the app, I could add emojis, frames, text, stickers, filters and more to make the photos look good and cool.
It is also possible to connect the social media accounts to the sprocket app and then print photos already on the accounts. It is a fun thing to do and fun as well since I could tease my friends with their embarrassing photos from 4 years ago.
The device is very neat and handy and efficacious and serves its purpose well. It is very convenient to use especially when you are at a place where everything is picture perfect and everyone wants an instant picture that serves as a memory for their event.
I could print neat and amazingly beautiful photographs in an instant without any delays. The battery lasted long enough to not bring me any embarrassment by turning off while on work.
What more, I could also print when the device was being charged so no worries there as well. The technology used is inkless and it can also print black and white photographs giving a retro touch to them.
Final verdict
All in all, HP sprocket is an extremely easy to use and a nifty device that serves it’s purpose well. For a device, it’s size the photos are of amazing quality, just keep in mind to set the exposure right. I would recommend it to anyone who travels and has a heart for photography to buy this product. Also, someone who wants to have a hip device to show-off in front of their friends and family whilst collecting memories.
