Casio ZR-1 'Petit Colle' (1998)

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We all know about the KingJim DaVinci DV55 thermal printer. A digital camera with no external memory slot and a built-in thermal printer. This was 1990. The world had to wait another 8 years for a similar product to arise. This happened in late 1998. Casio marketed the ZR-1, nicknamed 'Petit Colle' (small stick). The full name was Casio Petit Colle Digital Seal Camera ZR-1. Also a digital camera with a built-in thermal printer. This one was only sold in Japan though and therefore became a quite sought-after gadget. In the manual is a yellow note with instructions, printed 10/98. The model name is clearly present on this note. I have enclosed a photo of it to prove it came out in 1998. To back this up, there is a blog by 'Greggman' on the internet where he reviews this camera on 1998/09/30.

The camera itself was a totally cute and nifty gadget. It had a clip on flash unit, self-timer and on the front of the camera, next to the viewfinder, there was a mirror for self-portrait photos. Two ZR-1 cameras could also be connected by cable. You had to insert a pre-printed 'seal' on one side of the camera, compose the scene, snap a shot and the camera would print the scene on the seal. Printing procedure took about 10 seconds. Seal sets were readily available in different colors and frames. This unique item is a must for every collector. It was actually pretty successful in Japan and it was available in different colors even. Casio also marketed a follow-up camera called ZR-10SR with an infra-red communications port.

For unknown reasons, the ZR-1 cameras had no serial numbers. It was marketed as follows:

Fall 1998 - Pearl white and Champagne Silver
Fall 1999 - Blue metallic, skeleton pink, skeleton blue
??????? - Green 'Kool' model (see pictures)