User Guide To Analog Instant Cameras

For most of her 19 years, my daughter took only digital photos, with either a digital camera or smartphone.

- Terry Sullivan

But about a year ago, she decided she wanted to shoot with an instant film camera. Puzzled, I asked her why, since I knew she understood she’d most likely get sharper, crisper results shooting digital. Her reply was instructive “They’re easy to use and fairly cheap, but you also get a physical photo.” For her, this object—a real, printed photograph—seemed almost exotic. “It’s something that’s sort of unheard of these days,” she said.

And over the course of a year, she pinned more of these tiny prints in her room: group portraits and landscapes that are oddly cropped, and images where the foreground seems blurry. Most had an overall softness to them. et I had to admit there was something appealing about the collection of prints.

THE RISE OF RETRO CAMERAS

My daughter isn’t the only one buying this type of camera. According to The Wall Street Journal, instant cameras have really resonated with consumers in recent years. In 201 , Fujifilm sold nearly four times as many instant models as digital cameras, and they’re continuing to increase in popularity. And Lomography, another company that makes instant cameras, is launching the Lomo’Instant Square ( 199) via kickstarter. It’ll use the same square-format photo paper that Fujifilm makes for its digital-analog hybrid instant camera, the Fujifilm Instax Square S 10 ( 24 ), which was introduced earlier this year. But the Lomo’Instant is a purely analog device.

Camera makers say they understand the allure. Katherine Phipps, a marketing and public relations manager for Lomography, says she’s excited to see photographers produce a picture that you can have a real experience with. “It’s something you can touch and hold. It’s a real object.”