After my brief experience with the Instax Mini(since given to my daughter), I decided to get myself an Instax Wide 300. I got one off of Ebay for a great price, had to effect some repairs, but love shooting with this chunky camera.
The Instax Wide 300 makes compositions a bit easer. However, it’s still not anywhere close to what I would call a “rangefinder” and it is definitely downright primitive compared to most DSLR and mirrorless digital cameras.
You’ll notice that black slash in the photograph. That is due to a hair that was present in the camera when I loaded the film. So it ends up casting a shadow in every exposure. *sigh*
The clarity and sharpness will definitely not impress anyone used to digital photography or really any SLR/DSLR/mirrorless manufactured in the last two decades. This isn’t surprising considering two factors:
- Plastic molded lenses
- Fixed focus relying on a tiny aperture
- Film plane setup is almost entirely plastic
Both the Instax Mini and the Instax Wide are both made from plastics which have a good deal of give and flex. Engineering plastic this stuff is not.
Here, I have an Instax Wide 300 partially disassembled for my next writeup about how I’ll be making some mods.
