Fujifilm Instax wide 300 Camera: Review

The market for instant-film cameras is growing and Fujifilm continues to grow its line of Instax cameras right along with it, introducing the new Wide 300.

Decent design

The Fujifilm instax Wide 300 Digital camera is a wide angle instant camera that uses large format instax instant films. Like other camera's of fujifilm,the whole bodyof instax wide 300 is made up of plastic. It has a lens ring dial with a two-range focus zone setting.

The camera has a retractable lens with two components and two elements. The focal length of the camera is 95 mm which lets you compose shots up to the mid-telephoto range with perfection. The closeup lens adapter which is included in the camera kit can be used for macro photography at a distance as near as 15.5 inches from the subject. The Motor driven two range switching focus system gives you a focus range of 0.9 mm to 3 m in normal mode and 3 m to infinity in landscape mode.

The camera has an LCD screen that displays the number of unexposed films available, provides access to the light and dark control, and also indicates when the fill-in flash mode is on. It has a built in electronic flash which automatically adjusts the light intensity depending on the distance to the subject. The camera uses the Instax Wide instant film.

Snappy performance

We used the instax wide 300 and found that anything shot within 0.9 metres could come really blurred. Add the closeup lens appendage and you can click decent self portraits, but that doesn’t not help click other close-ups.

You can lighten or darken your photos by using the toggle, but then you need to understand lighting to be able to know what you need to do. The work around is to click one photo first and then improve on it, but then at close to Rs 60 per shot you might not do that often.

However, the photos are good when the subject is about 3 metres away. At that range everything is sharp and the flash does not kill the pictures. Or you shoot under the sun to get near perfect shot. You would tend to use this camera for capturing faces. It is great for those family shots. Just keep it somewhere handy so that you don’t miss those memorable occasions and the snap can go in the fridge right away.

You can’t use this camera to click flowers or sunset. That kind of optimism just won’t take you anywhere. And you can’t share these photos, the sole reason why many of us take photographs.

Power supply

Four size AA 1.5 V alkaline batteries (LR6), Capacity : 10 film packs (Based on our test conditions)