The circular nature of trends is something that everybody is well versed in - what’s “in” today will be “out” next year, what’s “out” today will be very much “in” tomorrow -  and so on and so forth. One of the major industries to become entrenched in this vicious cycle of cool today/not cool tomorrow is the photography industry. The anti-digital push has been in strong form in recent years, with the revival of the analogue camera has become more than a passing fad.

PrintSnap looks to push this further by abandoning both digital and traditional film in favour of something quite different, standard till receipt paper. Inspired by the Polaroid concept, PrintSnap’s images can be printed out in around 30 seconds and, because the images are ink-less, at a cost of around 0.003 cents per image. Who needs a fifty pound memory card, right?

The images themselves are all black and white and are a bit of a throwback to the old Gameboy camera attachment, but with superior image quality. As with Polaroid, the appeal of PrintSnap is very much in the instant, physical image that is received. Unlike Polarioid though, the material PrintSnap uses as film is available in mass and for a fairly nominal fee (for the price of 8 Polaroid 600-type images, you can print over 8000 PrintSnap pictures), which is something the company will be likely to focus on more and more.

In a similar vein, software developers Nevercenter appreciate the excitement that comes with waiting for photos, they have created an app called 1-Hour Photo that makes you wait, well, one hour for your photo before printing it out in beautiful black and white film emulation.