I’ve never been a fan of instant cameras, largely because I don’t like the results they produce. However recently we stayed with our younger daughter and noticed this camera on a shelf and decided to give it a try. I asked my son in law if I could use it. He said OK and told me that there was film behind it.

The Instax 210 Wide Camera was the first wide format that Fujifilm developed (It has since been replaced by the Instax 300 Wide). It uses ISO 800 speed film cartridges that come in a pack of ten. Each photo measures 3.4 by 4.25 inches with a white border.

The camera has a film countdown counter as part of an LCD display that also shows the focal distance: either close-up for shots at 0.9 meters to 3 meters or distant for shots from 3 meters to infinity. Every time the camera is turned on, the front lens extends and the camera defaults to close-up mode.

Other controls include a lighten/normal/darken switch and a flash on/off button. The flash on the camera will fire automatically in low light conditions and there’s no way to stop it from doing so i.e. the flash cannot be completely turned off. The shutter speed is fixed at 1/64th and 1/200th of a second, so shots of people (or anything else) moving will look blurred.

The camera comes with a close up lens attachment, which also includes a mirror for taking selfies and requires four AA batteries.

That’s about it. All in all a fairly simple camera.