Apparently these are a thing again (is that the 3rd or 4th time?)

Anyone know if these instant cameras are any good? Presumably the film is still crazily expensive

They were rubbish in the 70s, but they had their uses back then.

Novelty item now, destined for the charity shop box when people realise how flippin expensive they are to run!

Photography eh? Say. no. more…

A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat.

Anyone know if these instant cameras are any good?

It depends on what your definition of ‘good’ is. They are a lot of fun, especially for kids. I got my eldest one of the mini Fuji Instax ones for Christmas and he loves it.

There are two formats now available. The Fuji version is known as Instax and also comes in two sizes, Mini, which produces credit card sized images and wide, which produces images about the size of cigarette pack.

The other format is the one by The Impossible Project, which is where the relaunch of Polaroid has come from. They’ve been selling the original Polaroid film for a while now and have recently launched new cameras that are recreations of the original Polaroid but they have also previously launched new funky cameras like this:

The Polaroid also comes in different sizes for use with large format cameras (boy I would love to have a go!) but the vast majority of people will just use the regular square size (Polaroid 600) we all used to know and love.

The Fuji system is significantly cheaper, both in terms of buying the camera and the shooting the film. It works out about one third the cost to buy the camera and one quarter the cost for each photograph.

The Fuji system tends to produce higher contrast, more saturated colours but is perhaps less well resolved. The Polaroid system has a more ‘lomography’ (think Hipster) look with low contrast and more pastel colours but the images overall are better resolved (in my view).

The Fuji system is aimed more at having fun with friends, the Impossible Project is going for the hipster crowd that might otherwise use ‘filters’ on Instagram but want to have an actual print in their hands.

Personally I love the idea and have used both the mini and wife Fuji system for both family and more creative projects. I recently shot a project that focused on the teenagers and young adults in my home town and one of the ways I brokered trust with them was to give them the Fuji instax and let them take and keep pictures of each other. It worked really well, both as a way of building rapport and of getting them enthusiastic about being photographed.