Topic: Lomo's at it again: Instant Wide

[Francois]

Just to let you know Lomography's at it again with what seems like a bit of déjà vu...
This morning they released the Instant Wide. It's their first camera specifically designed for Instax Wide film.

While it looks like a mix between the regular Instax with the offset viewfinder and the Fuji Neoclassic with more square shapes, it has a few slightly different features.

Tripod mount, B mode, Constant shutter speed mode for studio usage, a PC cable, Auto exposure mode, two apertures, add-on lenses, a remote shutter release and more.

here's the site
http://www.lomography.com/
and the advert
Introducing the Lomo'Instant Wide on Vimeo

[Ezzie]

Looks like the bigger, badder brother of the Lomo Instax. Moved the finder to the opposite top corner, flash up over the lens, and bigger lens. Otherwise very much like:


Lomo Instant Kickstarter edition unboxed by Eirik Russell Roberts, on Flickr

[Indofunk]

Is that a selfie mirror? *shudder*

[astrobeck]

and just when I thought they couldn't possibly have anything left to copy.....

sorry for the sarcasm, but they kind of make me wonder how they get away with some of the things they do....

[Francois]

Don't ask me, I sometimes have the same question.
Maybe they're just more gutsy than we are?
I think they have pretty deep pockets so they can afford good lawyers. And one advantage of doing everything through kickstarter is that they can pull the plug pretty fast is something bad happens...

Besides, in one sense they remind me of the old K-Tel guys... They used to go to inventor fairs and look at new products. At night when they were back in their hotel room, they'd try and figure out a way to make similar products to what they liked while bypassing the original design enough so that they wouldn't get a patent infringement.

[zapsnaps]

I'm actually with the Lomo guys on this one. I own the Fuji Neo 90 and think it is one of the best looking cameras I own (I may have a few from which to chose). But to my eye, the Fuji 300 Wide is a really ugly piece of kit, even though it shares design cues from the Neo 90. But I think the Lomo guys have got the look of this, especially in the brown finish, pictured above.

And is it really any different from all the European car manufacturers copying each others headlights, most of which look like they were put together by first year arts students, having an off-day.

[Francois]

I think Fuji must in a sense be really happy to see them adopt the instead format so much.
Let's not forget that the money cow is in the film department...

[jojonas~]

considering the options in cameras for the isntax wide fomat being what it is I welcome this.

and I gotta say that stuff like pc sync options and remote control in the lens cap were pleasant surprises making this pretty versatile.

[Francois]

I know that if it wasn't so expensive and if I didn't already have two Instax wides, I'd be really tempted.

[moominsean]

Yeah I would rather have this than the Instax camera that I bought, because i don't really shoot Instax. But my gut feeling is that Wide film will be on the short list for discontinuation and if I buy this camera it will be useless in a few years. I'm kind of amazed the film has lasted this long....they can't really sell that much of it in the grand scheme of things.

[Francois]

I don't know how much it really sells but I have a feeling it's probably better than we think.
When polaroid stopped producing instant film for the 600, there were lots of people who couldn't really go digital yet had no other option.
I know some doctors were using the polaroid to make before and after photos of their patients or using them to measure the progression of skin lesions.
There were also the big model agencies who used them to keep track of their models aging...

Instant prints are just plain convenient for some... And then there are all the polaroid artist who migrated to instax.

[Ed Wenn]

I bought a Wide 100 about 9 years ago for £10 in a charity shop. I used it a lot for about a year and then didn't touch it until this summer when I took it to Italy for the Wenn family holiday in the Alps. I quite like the format, but the camera is kind of ridiculous and lugging it and the Bronny S2A in the same 1970's shoulder strap camera bag was a bit of a squeeze.

....but, it works and it cost me £10.

If I could buy either of these for £10, I'd definitely invest.

[limr]

I agree that the film is great and I like the format, but the Instax Wide camera itself leaves a bit to be desired.

But if it makes anyone feel more optimistic about the film, I think another place where it gets a lot of use is in the fashion industry. Photographers don't take Polaroids as test shots anymore since it's all digital for the most part, but I was watching Project Runway (shaddap, I like watching them sew) and it seems a lot of designers take instant prints of different looks on different models, and then these get tagged to the garment bag for the show. They all had Instax Wide cameras (I think the minis might be too small for their purposes). I just googled this to see if it was just a Project Runway thing or more common amongst more established designers. I didn't find much about that (though the Instax cameras do seem to be marketed towards fashion designers who are into all retro things these days), but there does seem to be a weirdly strong presence of Instax in fashion - given as prizes, used by fashion bloggers and even aspiring models.

What does this mean when the retro fad goes away? Well, the bloggers might not use them anymore, and perhaps not the models either, but the designers might still use them because there's still a need for an instant print.

I dunno, I'm just going to ride the wave for as long as it lasts

[Ed Wenn]

Very interesting indeed. I had no idea that Instax was used like this, but it makes sense for anyone who needs an almost instant, physical print.

[jojonas~]

yeah, while we still had a tv and my wife watched top model and project runway (make it work! ) I was happy to see that they used instax from time to time either for auditions or deciding the order on a runway.

I think I've seen some investigators use them in shows too but that seems gimicky as the resolution ain't the best

[Francois]

Nah, investigators don't use instax. In reality, they use some Nikon D4 in raw mode. To make sure that nobody played with the evidence in Photoshop, Nikon has special software that analyses the files for integrity of both the rgb sequencing and encoding method to detect tempering.