Fujifilm has a strong library of purely analog instant cameras that use its Mini and Wide film Instax formats. But it has decided to move in a different direction with its first model that uses its Polaroid throwback Instax Square film. It sports a digital sensor and an LCD, so you can snap away, edit and filter images, and print them at will. It's fun to use and the prints look great, but I'm left wanting for a bit more from the digital side, as there's no way to transfer your in-camera edits to a computer or phone. The SQ10 is a great conversation starter, but pricey compared with purely analog instant cameras. Our Editors' Choice instant camera is still the $200 Lomography Lomo'Instant Wide, which uses film with a larger image area and costs less than Instax Square.

Design

The SQ10 ($114.99 at Amazon) is a squarish camera, finished in black with silver accents. It measures 5.0 by 4.7 by 1.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 15.9 ounces when loaded with film. You can slide it in a large jacket pocket, but I wouldn't call it a pocket-friendly shooter. Still, it's small for an instant camera—you don't need a big lens to cover the medium format image area of a print. The Lomo'Instant is huge in comparison—5.8 by 7.5 by 3.8 inches.

The lens is a wide-angle design, a 28.5mm equivalent that covers a field of view similar to an iPhone camera, albeit a bit tighter due to the square format. It has a fixed f/2.4 aperture and can focus as close as 3.9 inches (10cm). The lens isn't as bright as you get with an iPhone, but it has a real flash rather than an LED light, which gives it a leg up in dim environments. Autofocus is a little slower than you get with a flagship smartphone—there's an average 0.3-second lag between pressing the shutter and image capture— which does make it harder to catch the most fleeting of candid moments.

The camera is comfortable in the hand. Its deisgn is symmetrical, so it's just as intuitive to use for lefties as it is for righties thanks to dual shutter buttons on the front. By default both snap a picture, but you can disable one, or set one to change the camea's shooting mode instead. There's no manual exposure option, but you can switch between snapping a single image, creating an in-camera double exposure, or enabling bulb exposure, which keeps the shutter open as long as you hold the button down. Bulb is useful for long exposures when shooting from a tripod, or for light painting.

Operation is straightforward. Twisting the silver ring around the lens turns the camera on or off. There's an Auto/Manual switch on the side. When set to Auto every shot prints out as you take it; Manual lets you choose which images you print.

Controls on the rear are arranged in a circle and include exposure adjustment, play, and a print button. There's also a Menu/OK option at the center of the ring of buttons, with a combination four-way control and control wheel in between. The bottom features a standard tripod mount.

The 3-inch, 460k-dot LCD sits above the rear controls. It's the only way to frame shots—there's no optical viewfinder, like you get with other Instax cameras. This helps keep the size down, but takes away some of the old-school charm, like you get with the budget-friendly Instax Mini 70. It's not the sharpest display we've seen on a digital camera—high-end models typically use 921k-dot or higher LCDs—but it ofers enough resolution to preview and edit images.

The camera uses Instax Square film ($16.99 per 10-pack), which has an image area that's about 2.4 inches (62mm) on each side, surrounded by a white border. With the border, photos are 3.4 by 2.8 inches (HW). Film is pricier than other Instax formats—Mini and Wide costs between $0.66 and $0.90 per shot, depending on the amount you buy at a time. Of course, with the SQ10's digital capabilities, you don't have to print every photo.

There are a number of in-camera filters available, so even though Instax Square is a color film format, you can print in black-and-white. There are also in-camera filters to adjust color, add a vignette, or create a collage to put multiple images on one print. In-camera double exposure is also supported.

The SQ10 is powered by a removable rechargeable battery. It's good for about 160 shots per charge, and can be recharged in-camera via its micro USB port. Internal memory holds up to 50 shots. To get them off of the camera, you'll need to insert a microSD card and copy images from ther internal memory to the card, and then load the card into your computer. You should install a microSD card into the SQ10 immediately, and you don't have to get a big one—I put a 16GB card in and the camera estimates it can hold more than 15,000 images. A 4GB card should last you a while without filling up all the way.

It's All About Prints

The digital image quality delivered by the SQ10 isn't going to make anyone say wow. The camera uses a 0.25-inch image sensor, about half the size of the already tiny sensor used by the iPhone 7. And the pixel count? Images are 1,920 by 1,920—do some multiplication and you'll find that's just 3.6MP.

But when your print medium is 2.4 inches on a side, 3.6MP is plenty. Add in-camera editing tools, and you've got an instant cam that's really fun to use. There are 10 filters built in, including a monochrome option, plus you can brighten or darken corners, and adjust the overall exposure. I'd have loved to see a little more control—you can't add film grain, pull out details from the shadows, or perform a number of other functions that smartphone and desktop photo editing applications support. But it's not a bad feature set for casual use.

Print quality is solid. Colors are strong, details are crisp, and the small sensor means the SQ10 has a solid macro capability—the lens can focus on subjects as close as 3.9 inches away. But prints are the only way to share your edited images. The original, unedited JPGs are stored on the card, but the edits are just sidecar text files, telling the camera which adjustments to apply. If you love the way a particular shot looks printed and want to share it digitally, you'll have to take a photo of your print or scan it. We opted for scanning for the sample images in this review, and I'll be the first to admit, you lose some of the instant camera aesthetic using this method.

Before the SQ10's release, it looked like the camera would double as an instant film printer for photos—like the Instax Share SP-2 wireless printer, which uses the smaller Instax Mini format. But in practice, trying to print shots from other cameras is an exercise in frustration.

The SQ10 manual states that you need to rename images to meet a specific format (ABCD1234.JPG, BDEF4388.JPG, and so on) and put them in the root directory of a memory card and all should be well. But every image I tried to pull out of my photo archive and load delivered a Read Error message. The problem? I've edited the photos in Lightroom, or saved them using Photoshop. I spot checked an image from an inexpensive Nikon point-and-shoot (the A300) and it loaded without a problem. If you generally shoot JPG files with your camera or phone and don't edit them at all, you'll (likely) be able to load them on a memory card and print. But if you've got a big library of favorite shots that have moved through the Adobe suite, you're out of luck.

Missed Connections

The lack of connectivity is an issue here. Instant cameras are social by nature. You snap a photo and a few minutes later you have a print—you can give it to a friend, tack it up on the fridge, or put it into a physical album. We've extended that in the digital world. Facebook, Instagram, Flickr—whichever service you use to share moments from your life, the SQ10 should be the camera with which to do so.

But Fujifilm decided not to include a wireless function, or give you a way to share your edited shots with ease. It's a missed opportunity. Bluetooth would be a perfect match with the SQ10's small file sizes, especially since it can be used to transfer images to a paired device in the background. Include it and you've got a camera that makes it as easy to share an image with someone on the street as it is to broadcast to the digital world.

I have some complaints about what the SQ10 doesn't do, but let's remember what it does accomplish. It's as portable as an Instax Mini camera, but captures images that are larger. It's useable in dimmer light thanks to a brighter lens, can focus to macro ranges, and lets you preview and edit images before you print. And you can print off a few copies of a photo to share with ease. I snapped a quick photo of some fancy donuts at the local bakery, printed it on the spot, and gave it to the shop owner. (And yes, it got me a free donut.)

If you love the social interaction that you get from an instant camera, and are a fan of the analog look from instant prints, the SQ10 is most certainly worth a look. The square format is more exciting for a generation that grew up with Polaroid than the smaller Mini or even the larger Wide format. It's not an Editors' Choice winner, but it can still be a lot of fun to use. We give preference to the $200 Lomography Lomo'Instant Wide, which delivers a pure analog photography experience. The prints are larger, and while you can't select shots before making one, the film is roughly half the price and the camera is a bit less expensive.

Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10 Specs

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