A few months ago I bought an instant camera on a lark. I fondly remember my old Polaroid SX-70 and I wanted to see if a new instant camera might be better. After all, technology has improved in 30 years. Hasn’t it? Sadly, at least for this camera, that is not the case.
I bought a Fujifilm Instax Wide 300. It’s around a hundred dollars, reasonable, but film is around a dollar an image. Not cheap to experiment. And experiment I have, getting passable results out of doors and very poor results indoors. I’ll start with the best shots.
An outdoor shot in full sun with few shadows. As good an image as my old Polaroid.
A bed of Petunias in full sun with no shadows. This is where the camera performs best.
The same bed at a different angle. The first shot was not a fluke. The colors are consistent. This time.
Here’s where the camera fails. This light shading shouldn’t be a problem but it is. Every shot with a fair amount of shadows confuses the camera.
Again, there is no moderation. Shadows are consistently too dark. There is a single button on the camera which lightens the exposure a little but increases the exposure for everything else in a scene. Notice how pale the sky is, the camera unable to handle it.
Notice the rich blue sky. That’s perfect. But the rest of the scene wallows in darkness.
Another odd one. The colors are all wrong. The fence should be a medium dark red. Colors are not predictable.
Shadows on a wall. As with all instant cameras, lines are not crisp. You may want to stay with subjects that have well defined lines. Otherwise, you simply get more fuzzy.
This is just a demonstration of an indoor shot. White blows out the camera every time. See how there is no detail in the white? Anything with a large amount of white will be overexposed. The flash helps blow out the white, so much so that I am no longer shooting indoors.
One successful indoor shot. No big amount of white and a uniform background. By that I mean a wall of uniform depth, with no gaps or dropouts.
I always want to be positive. I think the camera could be useful for someone who always shoots outdoors in full sun. Think desert photography. And instant cameras are indispensable for souvenir photos, ones you can hand to a person and walk away. But I am disappointed that instant film technology hasn’t progressed. I’ll continue to shoot a few photos here and there but I won’t be spending much time with this camera.
