Instax SQUARE SQ1 Instant Camera, Glacier Blue

Product Information

And don’t worry about finding the perfect lighting. The Fujifilm INSTAX SQUARE SQ40 features powerful automatic exposure so you can seize the moment, day or night. From brightness to shutter speed, it does it all for you.

That’s not to say the instax process can’t make great-looking prints of very bright or very dark scenes, but you’re unlikely to be using an instax analogue camera to take them. Fujifilm’s done this before with the Mini 11 and Mini 40, which explains the naming of the new SQ40. The Mini 11 and Mini 40 again share the same features and print quality, but the 40 sported more of a retro-finish for those who wanted an instant camera, but weren’t fond of chunky bodies and pastel colours. The SQ6's bulky body probably means you won’t want to carry it around without its straps; it’s not really designed to be held in your hand when you’re not shooting. Aside from the metal used around the lens ring, the body is largely made of what appears to be polycarbonate, but its finish is pleasing and the build quality suggests that it won't smash should it suddenly slip out of your hand. Meanwhile at the other end of the scale, access to longer shutter speeds allows the SQ40 to capture more of the surroundings in dim interiors.Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Heather Broster/Mathieu Gasquet and Instant Camera Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. One features that may please those used to more traditional capture is a tripod bush on the base, which is the standard 1/4-20 size that’s common to the majority of other cameras. Furthermore, a self timer delays exposures by ten seconds, which you may find useful if you want to get yourself into the frame. A large body with a great build There’s also a third option to consider which in theory gives you the best of both Worlds: going for one of Fujifilm’s digital instax cameras, which employ a sensor, built-in memory and screen, allowing you to not only take lots of photos and apply various effects to them, but crucially view them on the screen before deciding whether to print them or not. When the camera does get it right, however, results can be perfectly pleasing. The size of the prints is great for scrapbooks, wallets and or pin-boards, arguably making a little more sense than the smaller Mini-format prints. Ultimately, the Instax SQ6 is easy and fun to use but not the cheapest nor most consistent camera of its kind - it still makes our list of best instant cameras, though. The fixed angle of view is slightly tighter than that of a phone’s main camera – around 35mm in photography terms – and in general you’ll want your subjects to be between 0.3m and 3m from the camera; any further away and they’ll be too small in your prints.

It's somewhat difficult to take in the entire scene in the viewfinder without looking around it, and this makes it difficult to know exactly where the peripheries of the fame are as they appear blurred. That said, for most subjects you'll no doubt just be placing these in the centre of the frame and won't be worrying to much about critical framing. Image quality And while the innards are identical to the SQ1, Fujifilm has made some minor adjustments to the SQ40’s grip, shaving off much of the SQ1’s rounded front, leaving the shutter button perched on a smaller plateau. In my hands, this made the SQ40 more comfortable, avoiding the tight pinch between the grip and lens barrel on the SQ1, while on the rear, the rubbery surface felt less slippy under my thumb. But beyond these exterior tweaks, the SQ40 is essentially the same as the SQ1. Having used both formats for quite some time now, I’ve grown to prefer the size of the Square format as it reminds me of the old Polaroids I used to take as a teenager.Aside from the default Normal mode, the camera has a range of shooting options that allow you to ready it for selfies, macro shots, landscapes and even double exposures, while two further options act like exposure compensation controls in that one produces a lighter image and the other a darker one.

The sample gallery (above) shows the sort of aesthetic quality you can expect from any Instax camera – that's a lovely desaturated vintage look, and the SQ40 is no exception. In theory this approach sounds like a no-brainer, but I actually find them the least compelling in practice. If I want predictability, I’d prefer a instax printer that’s designed to work with my phone. If I want the fun, the analogue instax models will give me something genuinely different in operation and results to a digital camera. In fact I’d say there’s an argument for having both a wireless printer and an analogue camera. Fujifilm instax SQ40 verdict To help compose your selfies, the SQ40 has a tiny mirror on the front of a lens as a visual guide, but given its size it’s only moderately helpful. Fujifilm Instax SQ40: Performance There’s a viewfinder for composing pictures. This isn't physically aligned with the lens, but it has parallax correction, so what you see through the viewfinder is pretty much the composition you’re going to get. Instax Mini is the most common format and is used by the vast majority of Fujifilm’s instant products including the Mini 7s, Mini 8, Mini 9, Mini 70 and Mini 90 Neo Classic cameras, and the SHARE SP-2 printer.

Fun, squared

Ok, here’s some shots I took with the SQ40. The simple lens delivers mild wide-angle coverage that’s suitable for general-use from portraits and selfies to buildings and landscapes. Exposure is again automatic with the camera able to access shutter speeds from half to 400th of a second that, with the fixed aperture and film sensitivity, should cover you from fairly bright scenes to dim interiors. As before, selfies in medium light seem to work best of all, and I was pleased to find my pasty skin tones not becoming washed-out. Operating the camera is very straightforward, although you do have a little more control over shooting than that offered by the average model. The rear sports three buttons: one for disabling the flash (which is enabled as standard); one for activating the self timer; and a third for cycling through the remaining shooting options. These options each have a light above their respective icons to show which is currently selected, but this setup means that two options cannot be selected simultaneously.