Hands on with the Lomo’Instant Wide Glass | Instant Film Photography
Lomography reached out to me and asked if I'd like to give their brand new Lomo’Instant Wide Glass a spin, and naturally I agreed. The Lomo’Instant Wide Glass is an instant camera capable of creating sharp photos instantly, it even has a myriad of settings to help you reach your creative vision. In this video, I tour around Hang Zhou, China while trying out this prototype camera.
The camera comes with a built-in 90mm f/8 lens on 35mm equivalent.
What is the Lomo’Instant Wide Glass?
The Lomo’Instant Wide Glass is branded as the sharpest instant camera on the planet. It features a multi-coated glass for unmatched sharpness and unbelievable colour Instax Wide film. The camera runs on 4 AA batteries as its power supply.
Source: Lomography website. A pack of 20 film costs around $35.90 SGD.
SHOOTING MODES:
“A” - Auto Shooting Mode
Built-in Flash is enabled by default but can be manually turned off and on.
“B” - Bulb Mode
Shutter will remain open as long as Shutter Release Button is held down.
“1/30” - Fixed Shutter Speed Mode
Camera will be set at 1/30 shutter speed, aperture value at f/8.
“f/22” - Fixed Aperture Mode
Shutter will be automatically determined by camera according to ambient light. For greater depth of field.
MX Mode
For unlimited multiple exposures.
Splitzer Lens Attachment
The Lomo’Instant Wide Glass comes with a Lomo’Instant Splitzer Lens Attachment, that screws directly into the Filter Thread in front of the lens. The splitzing magic is done via two rotating blinds – thereby dividing up the image frame in a countless variety of ways. (unfortunately since I have a prototype, I didn’t get to test this)
Focus
0.3, 0.6, 1-2m, infinity focus
Built-in Flash
Flash gels available for creative effects (I didn’t test this because I had a prototype)
The viewfinder comes with frame markings to correct for parallax error when shooting close-ups.
The camera also has a tripod thread, a PC sync port for flash input and in the future will come with its own strap with a measure scale.
The lens cap doubles as a remote shutter release using infrared transmission. It has remote and timer modes. and runs on one 2032 (3V) battery
It’s big and packs a punch! I do love the brown vintage facade.
Conclusion
The camera body is rather large and bulky, but that is to be expected given the size of the Instax Wide film. Overall I found it’s a good camera to get in touch with the “analog” side of photography. A day out with this camera will help you escape from the world of Photoshop and AI-edited images. With the cost film to be around $1.75 per shutter release, this also trains you to be more deliberate and purposeful with your photography. I really enjoyed using this camera and can definitely see it as a valuable tool in training one’s eye for composition and making creative photos that can’t be replicated.
It costs around $349 Singapore dollars, a good price for the hobby photographer though film I find is a little pricey. I thought the settings and shooting modes are really good for exercising my creativity, especially using multiple exposures and bulb mode.
I did notice that the camera didn’t respond to shutter presses sometimes and some film came out all white, but that could be because I was using a prototype and not a production unit. I’d expect these issues to ironed out for retail units.
Scanned sample images:
Note that some of these are taken with black and white film.
