Originally Posted by
Oren Grad
I've shot a lot of Instax, both color and monochrome. It's so wildly different from color and B&W negative films that I don't think there's much to be gained by using it for tests. Both types of Instax are far contrastier, and correspondingly have very limited exposure range, compared to negative film. Polaroid was often used to check studio setups, but I've shot Instax under studio lighting, and because of the contrast it's a poor guide to judging lighting setups and lighting ratios for anything other than itself. Even compared to transparency film, I think the exposure range is shorter, and the color rendition is quite different too.
I think Instax is best used as a distinctive photographic medium in its own right.
New55 is only semi-instant; the fixing/rinsing process is messy and time-consuming. Unlike Instax, it's very expensive per sheet, substantially more than the cost of buying and processing 4x5 negative film. Again, best used as a medium in itself, by those who like the way the negatives and prints look.
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