Digital photographers who feel stuck in a rut often reach for film as a welcome change of pace. Using instant film takes away the need to take rolls to the lab (or your darkroom) to be developed, and provides the same immediate gratification you get with digital shots. The Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 ($129.99) is one of a number of instant cameras that are still in production. It uses the larger of Fuji's two instant film formats, doubling the size of the Instax Mini format used by the Lomography Lomo'Instant. That's a big plus in my book, even though the Instax Wide 300 lacks some of the more creative functions that Lomo's camera provides.

The Instax Wide 300 ($92.08 at Amazon)  is a big camera. It measures 3.8 by 7.4 by 4.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.4 pounds. It features an optical viewfinder, a prime lens, and a big handgrip with the shutter release at its top. It's powered by 4 AA batteries and uses the Instax Wide film format.

Instax Wide is sold in packs of ten exposures, with each photo measuring 3.9 by 2.4 inches (HW). If you buy film by the pack it works out to about $1.50 per shot at retail, but you can sometimes find it for less, or cut the cost to about $0.80 per image by buying in bulk. The film is only offered in color—that's a downer if you appreciate the option of shooting in black and white. Impossible, which makes film for vintage Polaroid cameras, sells black and white instant film, but it's much more expensive at about $3 per shot. 

The cost of instant film can be a downer, especially if you're just shooting for fun. But wedding photographers looking to add some value to packages can certainly justify the relatively low cost of the camera. It's pretty easy to use, as well, so you can hand it off to an assistant. The flash will fire automatically in dim conditions, even if you forget to turn it on, and the only other exposure control is a brighten or darken function. For the most part I was happy with the way the camera meters, but I had a couple of shots where overexposure was an issue. One image of a blooming cherry tree came out a little bit too bright, even with the camera set to darken the image.

That's it for exposure control—if you want an instant camera that gives you more creative power, look to the Lomo'Instant. It allows you to set aperture and shoot multiple exposures on a single frame, and also has a number of lens attachments available. Its major downside is the use of the smaller Instax Mini format, which is just too small for my tastes.

The lens locks to a focus range of 0.9 to 3 meters (2.9 to 9.8 feet) when the camera is powered on. A twist of the barrel switches to the 3-meter-to-infinity range. If you want to focus closer, there's an included clip-on macro attachment for the lens that brings the focus down to 0.4-meter. It has a plastic arm that sits in front of the fixed optical viewfinder to show you where the center of the frame is when focusing close; because the lens is offset from the viewfinder, parallax comes into play in the close focus range. The lens is a 114mm f/14 prime. In terms of field of view, that's roughly equivalent to a 35mm lens on a full-frame camera system. It's a moderate wide angle field of view that's fine for snapshots and landscapes alike.

The Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 is a solid platform for Fuji's larger instant film format. It's easy to use, as long as you think a little bit about the distance between you and your subject. Serious photographers may find the lack of manual exposure control to be an issue, but casual snapshooters will feel at home with the basic exposure controls. If you want more creative control, including double exposures, consider instead the Lomo'Instant—you'll just have to be happy with the smaller film format. You can also scour eBay for an old Polaroid camera and use Impossible film, which gives you the choice of black and white or color, but you'll have to pay a lot more per shot.

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