Don’t tell Olympus or Sony, but my love affair with the Fuji
brand is growing with each day. Although I have been writing about the Fuji
X-T1 quite a bit, I would say it is their offering of instant film products that has me head over heels. Their X-series mirrorless cameras have impressed me thus far, but
still have a lot of room to improve like all mirrorless cameras. For now, I am blissfully using it as another photographic
tool, but I will save that for another post.
What is it about the Instax products that appeal to me so
much, you may wonder. Before I started shooting in the digital age, I had a
point and shoot film camera that I pretty much took everywhere I went – from
family gatherings, middle school dances to our local ice skating rink. It was small, easy to use and created physical memories that
I could hold on to and enjoy with my friends/family.
We learned the hard way, not all Sharpies are created equal. If you plan on writing on the Instax prints make sure you use the permanent ink variant (as labeled on the pen) as to avoid smearing.
For our wedding project, we decided to avoid powering the Fuji SP-1 printer with batteries. Instead we opted to use a CAIUL USB Power Cable (available on amazon for ~$13) and an external rechargeable battery pack. In my opinion, this is a more reliable way to power the printer
Fuji is able to scratch that film itch and continue to give me something
physical to enjoy again. I raved about my recent acquisition of the SP-1 printer - Click HERE for my review. I loved it so much, I even found a way to incorporate it in our wedding, which had a photography theme. My lovely fiance, now my wife, gave me the green light to buy over 200 sheets of Instax mini film and we printed out table cards for all of our 170+ guests. In the digital world, where all of our photography is mostly shared on Google+ and Facebook, it is so refreshing to share our work through a tangible medium. Even though the print quality will never match that of a professional grade printer, it is still something people can spend time holding, examining, and keeping for years to come. Many have commented that these table cards were a unique way of displaying our Disney photography and showing off our personality. To this day, I see these table cards posted on our friends'/family's refrigerators.
A special thank you to Efong Chiu over at EmaginePixel for taking these photos. Pinterest gave us the idea of using a canvas to hang all of our prints (painted by our amazingly talented brother, John Pelico III). We stapled and taped string across and hung them with mini clothes pins (eBay is the best place to get these pins - I got 200 for under $20). A table top easel was used to keep the painted canvas upright.
Fuji's contribution to our wedding didn't end there. We asked our usher to take candid photographs with the Fuji Instax 210 camera. This camera should not be mistaken with the mini versions that take the same film packs as the SP-1 Printer, Mini 8 or the hipster-friendly NEO 90. In my opinion, the 210 wide film is a much more favorable format at 9.9cm x 6.2cm than say Polaroid's 7.5cm x 7.5cm. For some reason, I just can't get behind the square format and is the sole reason why I do not use Instagram on a regular basis. Besides being more conducive for portrait, landscape and group shots for my style of photography, the film packs are significantly more affordable than Impossible Project's (a third party manufacturer who is known for making film for Polaroid cameras) and are far less temperamental. I have a hard time recommending Polaroid to people who want to get into instant photography especially after what I had seen on the Tony Northrup YouTube channel.
Our custom made, Etsy ordered, wedding album dedicated to Fuji Instax products
Heather and I invested (and I wholeheartedly mean the word invested) in an additional 200 sheets of wide film and boy did it pay off. Our Usher went above and beyond what I had originally intended and spent the entire night documenting the festivities...that is until my father punched the camera out of his hand while dancing with my Mom. Although the camera did not survive the accident, we were able to walk away with over 150 frames and we are incredibly excited to build our wedding album/scrapbook.
The opening page to our book. All the photos were developed with the FujiFilm SP-1 Printer. A special thanks to Rachel B. Photography and EmaginePixel for their great contributions to our memories
The wide prints fit perfectly in our album. We used adhesive photo corners, which can be purchased at any arts and crafts store, to adhere the photos to our album.
Just a small sample of our Instax collection. Instead of having our guests sign a guest book, we had them leave us a message on the Instax photo themselves. It makes sifting through these photos a much more enjoyable experience.
On my main website I have a tagline that states: "A good photo is an investment that doesn't lose interest". In fact, I believe photographs are one of the few things that gain exponentially more personal and sentimental value as time progresses. I may sound a little too adamant, even dogmatic, about printing, but I have come from a place where I almost lost 1 years worth of photographs due to a failed hard drive. Our memories should not live and die on our computer and the Fuji Instax products help me easily and conveniently practice what I preach. To date, no other company is able to scratch my nostalgic film itch at such an affordable price point. After spending thousands of dollars on a wedding, it is so nice to be able to instantly enjoy and reminisce one of the happiest days of my life. My wallet typically follows my heart and at the rate Fuji's going, they will continue to keep me as a loyal customer.
It's hard to admit it, but I am a hipster photographer. Ever since I played around with my cousin's Fuji Instax camera and saw the documentary about Polaroid instant film called Time Zero, I knew I had to have something like it. I was on the fence for a while about whether I would go with Fuji or Polaroid. While Fuji's NEO Classic 90 is retrotastic, the Polaroid 600 is a true classic. The only thing holding me back was the cost of film, buying another camera and the questionable output. It wasn't until Fuji announced the SP-1 Instax Printer that I suddenly decided to really give it some thought. Just recently an opportunity presented itself to me where I could trade one of my many paintball guns for this device. Needless to say, I took the offer and immediately fell in love.
A picture of the FujiFilm SP-1 with samples of the Mini Instant Film with colored borders
What makes the SP-1 so special is the fact that it takes the same film as the NEO 90 and can print ANY image that is on your smart phone or tablet (connects via wifi). AMAZING!! Now that most mirrorless cameras can instantly transfer images to any of your smart devices that means you are no longer tied to a separate camera for instant film fun. I know that most people claim that half the appeal of using instant film is that you don't know what you're going to get until it develops, but I personally don't have the money or resources to just hope I get a good shot, especially with the lack of manual controls. With this device, I can sort through all of my shots and only print the ones that are real keepers. The photos that come directly from your camera can even get some TLC from your photo editing app of choice before the printing process (I personally like Snapseed).
TIP: Do not buy the 50 film pack ($41.99 as of 11/13/14) from Amazon or B&H. You are better off buying multiple twin packs (20 sheets of film at $14.99 as of 11/13/14) as it comes out to $0.75 per sheet vs. $0.84 with the 50 pack. Go figure
There are a couple of things you have to realize about this printer. Your shots will not be as sharp, clear or vibrant as the original photo. It will be softer and much more muted, but you have something physical that you can share with your friends and look back years from now. The feeling of sifting through old photographs has a far different effect and emotional impact than looking through photos from your facebook page or your hardrive. I can't articulate what it is that makes it so special, but it is special at least to me. Below are some color shots to compare with the original digital file. I know that taking a photo of a photo is slightly ridiculous, but it gives some perspective of the quality. The hipster in me just loves the vintage feel
Below you will find the original photos.
Taken with a micro 43 camera - I wanted to test the reds and oranges. It suffers a bit in this tonal range, but I still like it
The greens and purples come out pretty well. This is probably my favorite colored print
This shot was taken with my LG G3 smart phone. I was impressed with how this came out. Gives me a lot of hope printing shots taken directly from my phone.
Where I think the instax truly shines is with black & white prints. The blacks are much deeper and the whites do not exhibit any form of gradation like I have seen with the the solid colors. In general, I noticed that they come out a bit overexposed, so I would recommend editing your photos and underexposing them by a third to two thirds of a stop. I did a special edit of my Dad below and purposefully darkened the image a bit (I actually like it a bit more this way) and found the printed image came out perfectly.
Sample shots of the instant film with the white border. I am just loving the B&W prints I am getting from this printer
I darkened this image of my father and found the printer slightly raise the brightness. Something to think about when you decide to print B&W photos.
At the end of the day, I am just completely in love with this device. I have always been an advocate of printing photos and the FujiFilm SP-1 helps facilitate this. While it may not produce picture perfect prints, there is most definitely a hispter charm to these little 2"x3.5" instant film photos. I can't recommend this product more.
Fuji is able to scratch that film itch and continue to give me something
physical to enjoy again. I raved about my recent acquisition of the SP-1 printer - Click HERE for my review. I loved it so much, I even found a way to incorporate it in our wedding, which had a photography theme. My lovely fiance, now my wife, gave me the green light to buy over 200 sheets of Instax mini film and we printed out table cards for all of our 170+ guests. In the digital world, where all of our photography is mostly shared on Google+ and Facebook, it is so refreshing to share our work through a tangible medium. Even though the print quality will never match that of a professional grade printer, it is still something people can spend time holding, examining, and keeping for years to come. Many have commented that these table cards were a unique way of displaying our Disney photography and showing off our personality. To this day, I see these table cards posted on our friends'/family's refrigerators. 
