We don’t do a lot of Kickstarter posts because the outcomes of crowdfunding campaigns, especially hardware ones, are notoriously unpredictable. But it’s with an easy conscience that I recommend Lomography’s new instant film camera[1]; I backed the company’s last one, the Automat, and it’s been fantastic. This one looks similarly fun, and shoots in a larger format.
The Square has a funky folding-bellows design, which gives it a sort of Polaroid SX-70 vibe. It’s a good thing it folds, too, because otherwise the camera would be even more of a beast. The Automat focused on compactness, but it could do that because it shot on Instax Mini; I’ve grown to love the little ones but I can’t say I’d mind a little extra space to work with either. Moving up to the larger Instax Square means the camera has to be bigger in a few ways.
Nevertheless it’s a clever way to do it, this bellows system, which by the way Lomo assures potential buyers is made of a very tough rubber that won’t wear out or tear. The build quality on my Automat is great (much better than Lomo’s Diana F+ and instant back I have from a couple years back) so I’ll trust them on this.
These little instant cameras are super fun and everyone who sees them wants one — I say this from experience — but they’ll be satisfied with an instant photo of themselves doing something dumb. They always are.
And if you’re worried about operating a film camera, don’t be — once you get a basic sense of the zone focusing (basically near, medium and far) you’re ready to shoot. There are advanced features like multiple and remote exposure, but 99 percent of...