I initially had some problems with the camera. I inserted the film and pressed the shutter release to eject the dark slide. The slide started to move and then jammed. I told my Son-in-Law (it was his camera after all). He replaced the batteries (the camera had been standing for some time) and then tried some brute force. After some tugging the slide finally came out, but unfortunately the first picture came with it, so we lost a frame.

After that it was all plain sailing. Select the appropriate focus zone and then press the shutter release. The first couple of images suffered from light leaks (see picture above), but the rest were good.

What did I like about this camera? Honestly not much. It’s easy to use and there is something rather magical about seeing the image develop in your hands.

What didn’t I like. First it’s huge. Much larger than an SLR even if it is lighter. You’re not going to be putting this one in your pocket. The viewfinder is off to one side, far away from the lens so there are definite problems with framing. There aren’t many controls, but what there are are all off to one side so you pretty much have to take your eye off the viewfinder and turn the camera to see them (and some of them are not all that easy to see even then).

So while it was fun to use I wouldn’t seem myself using one of these long term: not enough controls for me and I didn’t particularly like the quality of the images much.

This last image was taken using the close up attachment which allows you to focus to 15 inches (so not really that close).

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The Instax 210 Wide Camera was the first wide format that Fujifilm developed (It has since been replaced by the Instax 300 Wide).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.