It is already this time of the year, and I am preparing for Nordcon - science-fiction assembly. This year dress up code is Steampunk - dark, Victorian atmosphere mixed with advanced industrial revolution bizarre gear. Where Turing machine is actually self-conscious and everyone wears goggles because of the smog and dust. Good times...
Anyway, I thought that I will use this opportunity to recover some of the artifacts of old technologies, that were once (quite recently) defining the reality, but are now more or less dead. I was browsing in my retro geek corner, and in the first review it is Fuji Instax 200 Instant Camera, sold by Fuji since... mid 90's.
I love this peace of gear. Extremely simple to use, and with the press of a button you produce a 10 cm x 6.3 cm photo that comes out from the top slot with lots of satisfying noises and twirls. When you turn it on people stare. People stare even when you take it out of the bag. And they are very surprised, shocked and amused at the same time.
Camera produces photos which are wider and more rich in terms of color depth comparing to well-known Polaroid One with 600 film. Fuji Instax external look misses some of the elegant aesthetics of Polaroid instant cameras, but it is still a party animal, with flash, two options of focus and three sensitivity modes. Crude. But I feel I need to exploit it in incoming Nordcon (although it is really not a Steampunk piece, nobody will care;-)
Why do I still love instant camera, in the reality where I can make thousands of photos with my iPhone or any other digital camera? It is the crudeness, grittiness and material evidence of your photographic crimes, which comes instantly, and which you can share in a very different way than digital photo on a small shitty display. You can write on it. And it is generally a social thing.
Digital photos are done without any philosophy behind them, because person is not limited by film capacity. Digital photos are freeware, they don't cost you anything so you just shot them without thinking much about it. On the other hand instant photos have a value, they not cheap, and they certainly require some thought, otherwise they will come up crap. In Fuji you need to think about distance between your focus lens and viewfinder, and adjust your position, otherwise you will shot a photo somewhere next to your target.
Fuji Instax is a kind of technology, that has certainly died from the hands of digital photography, but it is still intelligent and social type of camera. And although you can consider it as a dinosaur technology, Fuji is still making films for it, in contrast with Polaroid.
It is simply the great retro geek machine, 8 out of 10 stars.
[Fuji Instax 200 Camera]
Price: ~£25-£60 - Ebay UK for good condition camera;
~£15 in your local charity shop if you are lucky;-)
[Fujifilm Instax Wide Picture Format Film]
Price: ~£10 for twin-pack (20 shots) - 7 Day Shop UK
[photo credit: geek on acid]
Anyway, I thought that I will use this opportunity to recover some of the artifacts of old technologies, that were once (quite recently) defining the reality, but are now more or less dead. I was browsing in my retro geek corner, and in the first review it is Fuji Instax 200 Instant Camera, sold by Fuji since... mid 90's.
I love this peace of gear. Extremely simple to use, and with the press of a button you produce a 10 cm x 6.3 cm photo that comes out from the top slot with lots of satisfying noises and twirls. When you turn it on people stare. People stare even when you take it out of the bag. And they are very surprised, shocked and amused at the same time.
Camera produces photos which are wider and more rich in terms of color depth comparing to well-known Polaroid One with 600 film. Fuji Instax external look misses some of the elegant aesthetics of Polaroid instant cameras, but it is still a party animal, with flash, two options of focus and three sensitivity modes. Crude. But I feel I need to exploit it in incoming Nordcon (although it is really not a Steampunk piece, nobody will care;-)
Why do I still love instant camera, in the reality where I can make thousands of photos with my iPhone or any other digital camera? It is the crudeness, grittiness and material evidence of your photographic crimes, which comes instantly, and which you can share in a very different way than digital photo on a small shitty display. You can write on it. And it is generally a social thing.
Digital photos are done without any philosophy behind them, because person is not limited by film capacity. Digital photos are freeware, they don't cost you anything so you just shot them without thinking much about it. On the other hand instant photos have a value, they not cheap, and they certainly require some thought, otherwise they will come up crap. In Fuji you need to think about distance between your focus lens and viewfinder, and adjust your position, otherwise you will shot a photo somewhere next to your target.
Fuji Instax is a kind of technology, that has certainly died from the hands of digital photography, but it is still intelligent and social type of camera. And although you can consider it as a dinosaur technology, Fuji is still making films for it, in contrast with Polaroid.
It is simply the great retro geek machine, 8 out of 10 stars.
[Fuji Instax 200 Camera]
Price: ~£25-£60 - Ebay UK for good condition camera;
~£15 in your local charity shop if you are lucky;-)
[Fujifilm Instax Wide Picture Format Film]
Price: ~£10 for twin-pack (20 shots) - 7 Day Shop UK
[photo credit: geek on acid]
