Casio ZR-1 'Petit Colle' (1998)
This device is a cross between a digital camera and a gimmick.
The ZR-1 was sold only in Japan – or given away as a promotion such as this one – from 1998.
It came out with the nick-name ‘Petit Colle’ which literally means “little glue” in French. That's an odd name. Maybe it's a reference to the camera’s small thermal print-outs, sticky seals that are pasted into supplied paper frames. My photos show a selection of seals and frames.
The camera instructions were only ever in Japanese, although much of the writing on the camera is in English, including the information shown in the LCD.
Maybe it's gimmicky, but the ZR-1 is not a toy. It has some useful photographic features – a 0.08 megapixel sensor, an f/2.8 fixed-focus lens and internal memory for two photos. It also has a clip-on flash, self-timer and a viewfinder that doubles as a mirror for framing self portraits.
It’s easy to imagine a pair of Tokyo teenagers snapping a selfie, waiting a few seconds for the camera to spit out the small photo, then pasting it into a frame to make a treasured keep-sake.
The particular camera you see here was a not-for-sale promotion by the large Japanese logistics company Sagawa Express.