Fujifilm Instax cameras and printers have kept instant film alive in our digital world, but it’s not just Fujifilm that makes Instax cameras; In fact, some of the best instant cameras you can buy come from Lomography, like the company’s new Lomo’Instant Wide Glass.
As the name suggests, the Lomo’Instax Wide Glass takes Instax wide prints and has a glass lens. At $279, it’s not cheap, but the quality of the images that come out of this camera are the best I’ve seen on any Instax camera I’ve tested.
Completely full glass
Lomography has long made Lomo’Instax Wide film, which, like Fujifilm’s recently updated Instax Wide 400, prints panoramic Instax images taken through a plastic lens. Plastic lenses are the norm on Instax cameras. Sticking with plastic keeps the camera in the more acceptable sub-$150 range. Plastic lenses like those on Fujifilm’s popular Mini 12 are fine for most casual instant scenarios. I have two Instax cameras with plastic lenses and I’m perfectly happy with them most of the time.
Photography: Scott Gilbertson
That said, glass lenses produce inarguably better results, and that’s where the Lomo’Instant Wide Glass comes into play. The images I took with this camera are by far the best I have taken with any Instax camera. They are sharper and have better, more accurate color reproduction.
The first thing you need to know about the Lomo’Instant Wide Glass is that it’s a big camera: 7.3 inches wide and 4.6 inches high and deep. It looks and handles like some 6×9 film cameras I’ve used in the past (Fujifilm’s GW series cameras come to mind), which makes sense because the film area of an Instax wide print is pretty close to a 6×9 negative. It’s hard to get around the laws of physics. The good news is that, while it’s a bit bulky, the Glass isn’t unwieldy and would feel right at home as an extra camera during a studio portrait session, which seems to be where Lomography is positioning it.