Instant film is making a comeback — and so is the traditional square format. On Tuesday, August 29, Lomography launched the Lomo’Instant Square on Kickstarter, the first fully analog instant camera compatible with Instax square film (since Fujifilm’s own square camera is a digital-film hybrid).
After just a day on Kickstarter, the Lomo’Instant Square camera with pop-out bellows has already raised more than three times the initial campaign goal. Like Lomography’s other film cameras, the Lomo’Instant Square comes in a number of color options but brings back the traditional camera bellows in order to fold the camera down to a third of its expanded size. A series of ten LED lights counts down how many shots are left in the Instax square ten packs.
Even though it is a fully analog camera, Lomography packed the Square with a number of creative tools. Photographers can snap multiple exposures and overlap shots as many times as they’d like. Colored flash gels give shots a colorful hue. A remote shutter release and exposure time as long as 30 seconds allows the camera to shoot long exposures, too. Of course, that remote shutter release (and the self timer) can also be used to shoot selfies with the Square. The remote release tucks inside the camera body for safekeeping when not in use.
The camera uses an auto mode to adjust exposure, using either an f/10 or f/22 aperture for the built-in 95mm lens. Exposure compensation allows photographers to control how light or dark the resulting shot is. Along with the auto mode, a long exposure mode allows for shots up to 30 seconds long.
The Square is also compatible with a few lens attachments. A portrait glass lens attachment allows the camera to shoot as close as .5m away from the camera to .8m away from the camera, allowing photographers to fill the frame when shooting a portrait. The Splitzer attachment creates a kaleidoscope effect by splitting the photo into segments.
Early backers can pick up the Lomo’Instant Square for pledges starting at $139, a 30-percent discount on the expected retail price. The company expects to start shipping the cameras in March 2018.
