Every emulsion reacts to colours differently. In a colour film, this results in a particular colour signature or palette, which is tuned by the manufacturer for its target market. I shot Reala 100 and other Fujifilm films for years and they are tailored for the Asian market. But what if you've got an honest-to-goodness Polaroid camera? The company has been reborn in the 21st century—it's gone through some name changes over the years, from the Impossible Project to Polaroid Originals, but today it's just called Polaroid. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Looking for an instant camera? You're not alone. Instant film is as popular today as it's ever been. Fujifilm and Polaroid are still around making Instax and I-Type films, respectively, along with the cameras to match.

You can go smaller, too. The tiny Polaroid Go uses similarly tiny film, available in color only. It's cute, but we think it's worth it to use classic Polaroid or Fujifilm Instax Square film because of their bigger image size. The enhanced developing process produces a more rapid image - less waiting time for complete development Year after year, instant film cameras remain popular gifts to give and receive for their old-school, tangible imagery. There’s genuinely nothing like a photograph shot on an instant film camera. From light leaks to blown out exposures to the notion that the one shot you get is the only shot you get, instant film cameras have been an exciting way to capture current moments since our parents’ generation that simply doesn’t exist with the modernized DSLR or smartphone camera. Low Key – high contrast low key image and I know where all the detail is and how far the light patches go into the shadows.

If you want to do it all in camera, at least you now have that option. Just bear in mind (or pretend not to notice) the less than truly panchromatic colour sensitivity, slightly borked green greys, blown highlights and murky shadows, both of which are mercifully not as bad as Instax Color. I’d not dare call these “art” but they are indicative of street scenes. Unlike the test prints, these were made with Instax cameras and then I worked them over in Photoshop to extract highlight and shadow detail, adjust mid-tones curves and sharpen any detail I found, then I desaturated them to remove colour casts. Thus, the images you see look better than the originals. I also took a few colour photos for comparison and so you have a better feeling for the light that day. However, while the image quality is great, the actual size of the image is a major limiting factor. The image is small enough that it can be difficult to make out details, and if the image is blown up too much when scanning, it can turn fuzzy despite the image itself being relatively sharp. If you’re using Fuji Instax Mini, there’s no reason not to grab some monochrome film to use. It’s affordable and blast to use in Fuji’s best instant film cameras. Using the Instax Share SP-2 printer gets around problems such as poor camera metering, bad focus, poor optics and lighting colour temperature. However it may introduce new problems: primarily resolution limitations.Whoever decided to cancel production at Polaroid should be banging their head on a table, because while they assumed the future was exclusively digital, Fuji steadfastly supported their instant film format through the 2000s and into the 2010s. As digital took over the consumer space, something funny happened. People grew nostalgic for the instant photography of old, and when they found Polaroid had essentially disappeared, they turned to the next best thing, something they probably had never used before even though it had been around all along: Fuji Instax film. Would scanning the monochrome film in BW benefit in the different color casts? maybe to neutralize it a bit? This is something i will be trying to see if the scans are more pleasing.. We don’t scan bw film in color mode 🙂 I absolutely love this new instant film. I found the color Fuji Instax film to be a bit dull for my tastes, but the monochrome film creates fun, surprising images. I finally can put my great Neo 90 to good use for more than just parties.

Loki Poster – I’ve had trouble printing this tip my satisfaction in the past. Scene shoes a high dynamic range and lots of shadow detail. If you've got an itch to shoot film again and don't want to have to find a local lab to develop your shots, instant film is a good alternative. It delivers results that almost match digital in their immediacy. The goal isn’t to make true to life colours, or Kodachrome primaries, but to make flattering portraits and landscapes. Skin tones are lightened and yellows shift slightly to ruddier tones. Overall colours are muted, but reds and particularly greens remain vibrant. Blues are considerably darkened improving sky contrast.Even in low light scenarios, due to its high-speed rating, Instax Mini Film will produce amazingly sharp images. Another user benefit is that it has been improved to lessen the developing time before you see your print - a real benefit when you are photographing young children who are notorious for wanting everything "yesterday". Instax Mini Film has also been enhanced to maintain its stability over the years making it a good choice for archival storage. Those pictures you shot when your kid was 4 - or during that trip to Disneyland will still be around long after he's out of high school. Fuji has also extended the working temperature range of this film to include 40 - 104F so you need not worry about using it year-round. The original film is what matters if you are showing those in person, but the scan is what counts if you are presenting online; and I can see more detail in enlarged scans than in the originals. Resulting from improved emulsion, development accelerators and development control technology it will keep your images colour-true for years

Color Fuji Instax film was developed in the original Polaroid era, and shares the same longevity as Polaroid. You can be confident that all your color Fuji Instax shots will last for many years without any strange chemical deterioration or major discoloration. Let’s face it, a 62x46mm print isn’t going to make anybody “ooh” and “ah” over the detail. That said, scans of the images made better use of the limited resolution. High Key – the original has tone and detail everywhere, but is very close to blowing out. All colour shades are light ascend natural to the eye and errors are very apparent. For artists, I really hope that Fujifilm releases a wide version of this film (and a better Fuji Instax Wide camera to go with it), as the size is still a major limiting factor to an otherwise fantastic film format. It’s simply too small to shoot landscapes and non-portrait photography effectively.I chose a number of images that I knew would be challenging to print and would cover the full spectrum of what you might shoot. I printed each image in the SP-2 printer and resolution test images (below), were done at exactly the printer resolution to avoid detail loss through resampling. Left to right: Original, Color, Monochrome (using a colour image), Monochrome (using a desaturated image) I’m going to call this an informal assessment, because it’s neither properly a product review, nor a test report. However, it does go into more detail than anything I’ve found elsewhere on the internet. Fujifilm Instax Color is much like that, but with less dynamic range, latitude, subtlety and overall charm. Blues in particular come out very dark. I almost thought it was a printer profile issue until I realised the printer was working right, but didn’t account for the film’s rendition; shots taken digitally and printed come out more or less as if they had been shot directly on Instax Mini Color.