Who doesn’t like taking photos? Keeping them safe as good memories is what we all do, but sometimes just taking the picture isn’t enough to capture the memory. You need to have it there on your wall or on your desk physically.
Here comes the idea of Polaroid Camera or Instant Film Cameras, which was a very trendy thing back in the day, and it came back in fashion a few years back and many companies have been making these Polaroid or Instant Photo Cameras for the people who want the photos to be printed out right at the moment when they take it.
But the problem with the Polaroid Cameras is their picture quality is not up to the mark, which is obvious because Polaroid Camera technology is obsolete.
Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10:
Fujifilm have been producing instant film camera from so many years but what makes this new SQ10 different from others is it’s an instant film camera that is also DIGITAL! Yes, it’s the first Digital Instant Film Camera from the company. The previous Instax models were also good and people loved them but there was a constant complain of picture quality being not very good, which is now being solved with this new digital camera.
The new $280 Fujifilm Instax SQ10 is not only a digital camera which gives your instant printed photos but its also has some basic editing tools and two modes to shot with. And the printing mode is just awesome, although it’s just a gimmick but it looks really cool when the camera is printing your picture.
Auto Mode lets you print everything that you shoot, once you have taken the picture, the camera will automatically print it instantly and you can have a photograph in your hand, just like the other Instax cameras.
Manual Mode lets you decide what picture do you want to print and you can edit them as well. Basically you are just taking digital photos with your camera in this mode and decide later what pictures do you want to print.
The SQ10 comes with a 3.7mp CMOS sensor along with a 3” non-touch LCD display. The battery life is pretty good and the printed photos are squared like Instagram and the 10 filters that are available in the camera also reminds me of Instagram’s filters.
Despite of having such a great feature though, we should not forget that it’s a digital camera, I mean you cannot expect it to give you results like DSLR or even your top tier smartphones. And while the image this camera captures look good on the instant film, the digital copies are usually low-resolution, flat and often uninspiring, but with a little work in the editing they might look great on Instagram.
Pros:
- LCD is helpful
- Pretty decent image result
- Great design with thin body
- Instagram like filters
- Shoot both digital and film photos
- Good battery life, though not as good as the other Instax camera because of the LCD screen.
- Its fun and easy to use
- First Instax Square film
- On board storage
Cons:
- Gets laggy at times
- Print quality not up to the mark
- Could really use some image stabilization
- Auto and Manual modes isn’t that easy, you need to read the manual carefully before using
- Navigation through the menu system is frustrating
- The camera is a little expensive $280
- Film costs $17 which is also a bit expensive
Verdict:
Fujifilm Instax SQ10 is a good option for only those who want instant photos with a good quality digital camera, considering the price tag a guy like me would rather go for a beginner level DSLR or a top-notch digital camera in this price range, and getting the film for $17 can also become a headache. So unless you love having an instant photo camera like anything, you can have so many other options for the same amount of money.