While we may live in a digital age, analog has not faced the extinction many feared it would with vinyls, books, and film all experiencing a renaissance in recent years. In light of this trend, Fujifilm announced their latest Instax camera and it comes as great news to analog photography fans.
The Instax Square SQ6 is a purely analog camera which prints 2.4-inch by 2.4-inch square instant film with a 1:1 aspect ratio. The SQ6 has no wireless connectivity, SD card, digital viewfinder, or zoom functionality and is powered by two replaceable lithium batteries which will allow you to shoot around 300 pictures.
Ease of use:
My initial thoughts when handling the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 for the first time was its size. It felt quite large in the hand but thankfully it is lightweight and easy to handle. Usage is pretty straightforward with just three buttons on the back: flash (on/off), timer, and mode along with a shutter button on the front.
The 0.4x viewfinder with a target spot is clear and is comfortable to use whether you are left or right eye dominant.
Loading the film into the camera is a breeze but I do recommend using the supplied neck strap. A word of caution, do not open the film compartment until you have used every slide in the pack as the counter will reset and your remaining film could be damaged.
In the field:
For general street photography I found the landscape mode to be most useful with everything after two meters being in focus. This is the mode I left the camera on predominantly while walking around the streets of London.
The Fujifilm SQ6’s on-board system does an impressive job of correctly setting the exposure for the majority of outdoor conditions. For exceptionally bright days I used the camera’s “darken” feature, which allowed me to correctly expose however, the darken mode does revert the camera to Automatic mode which can cause an inconvenience.
The prints are not overly processed with sharpening and clarity like you would get out of a digital camera, and they preserve the analog look of old. I was generally happy with the photos printed out.
For portraits, I stuck with automatic mode while macro mode required some trial and error before mastering it.
The SQ6 features a flash system that automatically calculates ambient brightness to adjust shutter speed, which comes in extremely handy in indoor situations. You also have the option of placing orange, purple, and green color filters over the flash to add a tint to the resulting photos.
For you selfie fans out there, there is a specific selfie mode that automatically adjusts focus and brightness when you’re trying to capture a shareable instant photo of yourself. Fujifilm have also added a small mirror beside the lens that helps you position yourself within the frame.
What else you need to know:
The best thing I can say about the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 is that it makes the complicated simple. In a world with ever improving lenses, sensors and pixel counts, it is a breath of fresh air to just pick up a camera, head out, shoot and for the results to be in your hand in an instant.
The Instax Square SQ6 is available in Graphite Gray, Pearl White and Blush Gold and is scheduled to launch on May 25th.
