Best Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:

The third Fujifilm camera to accept Instax Square film, the SQ6 is the first model from the Japanese manufacturer to take 100% snapshots. It thus completes a range made up of the SQ10 hybrid device released last year and the Instax Share SP-3 portable printer . It is not however the first analog camera in square format since Lomography also offers. Lomo’Instant Square which has the advantage of receiving the choice of the film. Instax Square or Mini.

Presentation

Equipped with a fixed focal length of 66 mm with f / 12.6 aperture. The Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 has a shutter with variable speed going from 1.6 s to 1/400 s. It is developed over three ranges of motorized distances: 0.3 to 0.5 m for macro shots. 0.5 to 2 m in normal mode and 2 m and more for the landscape. The adjustment of these different modes is carried out via a dedicated button on the back of the device and an indication by LEDs. To these modes influencing the focusing distance are added a double exposure function for overprints and two positions allowing to play on the exposure by underexposing or deliberately overexposing the final image. The Selfie position corresponds to the same focusing distance as the macro. In this mode, we can

In addition to these shooting modes, the camera has a self-timer position of about. 10 seconds with indicator light on the front and a button to cut the flash.

The flash has a range from about 0.3 to. 2.7 meters and is accompanied by three colored filters red, green and purple.

Best Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020

1. Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 – Instant Film Camera – Graphite Grey

2. Fujifilm instax Square SQ6 Instant Film Camera (Blush Gold) + Fujifilm instax Square Instant Film (40 Exposures). Small Digital Camera/Video Case (Black) + Photo4Less Camera and Lens Cleaning Cloth

3. Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 Case – Graphite Grey

4. Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 – Instant Film Camera – Blush Gold, Bundle with Fujifilm Instax Square Instant Film. Twin Pack, White Frame (20 Exposures) + ProOPTIC Cleaning Kit

5. Fujifilm SQ6 Gold Bundle

A square format for square film. From the first contact, the SQ6 displays real consistency with the Fujifilm Instax range. Its design is sober and its forms are more discreet than those of devices intended for the youngest like the Mini 9 , for example. Besides, Fujifilm did not choose the bright colors of its Mini range and is satisfied here with three pastel colored variations: powder pink, graphite gray and pearl white, the one we were able to take in hand.

It is a little lower than an SQ10 and barely wider but a little lighter since it weighs 393 g against 450 g for the SQ10. From the front, it brings to mind the Instagram logo.

Despite its lack of protuberance, the SQ6 is easily taken in hand thanks to a slight notch at the thumb, at the location of the batteries.

We come to the batteries elsewhere. This is one of the major faults of this device which, instead of accepting batteries, like the printer SP-3 or the SQ10, or receiving conventional AA batteries, is powered by two CR2 batteries, less common and more dear. Above all, while the manufacturing of the device seemed impeccable.

So that at the first loading, we were surprised and even dropped it. No doubt that in use this point will prove to be a real weakness, when the users have lost or broken their hatch and they will need to add adhesive to keep the batteries in place …

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It’s a shame, because for the rest, we found the SQ6 very pleasant to handle. The loading of films is, as always with Fujifilm, facilitated by the presence of a yellow mark, while a view counter allows to evaluate the number of films remaining in the device.

Placed on top, the power button activates the deployment of the lens and the SQ6 is immediately ready to photograph. Switching from one mode to another is easy and instinctive, while the colored filters adapt perfectly to the shape of the flash.

Only downside: the viewfinder placed at the right angle has a little destabilized. We are more used to finding it on the left or in the center of the aircraft. The latter is not very precise, but above all the parallax is important as soon as we get closer to the subject. In macro, we obtained better results by framing approximately than by putting the eye to the viewfinder.

Reactivity

Obviously, we did not take out our stopwatch to compare the duration of ignition of the SQ6 with that of the last hybrids on the market. It is not a question here of calculating the speed of the autofocus and even less of the burst. Nevertheless, we recognize that the SQ6 has good reactivity with an ignition time of less than two seconds. The controls react quickly to stresses and the film is instantly ejected from the device.

Finally, this is not a judgment specific to the SQ6 but to the entire Instax range: the development of the film is much faster than with the Polaroid process. It only takes a few seconds for the image to start appearing and less than two minutes are needed for it to stabilize.

Image quality

Since the SQ6 only accepts Instax Square film, it’s impossible to talk about the quality of its images without mentioning that of Fujifilm’s instant films. And it is clear that it greatly exceeds that of Polaroid films by their reliability, their stability and their contrasted and saturated rendering.

In order to judge the qualities of SQ6 precisely, we have chosen to compare its results with those obtained with SQ10 and SP-3. For this, we first photographed the test scene of our laboratory with the two devices and with our phone before printing it on the SP-3. Difficult to obtain quite the same framing with our three systems but these three images allow us nevertheless to observe large differences.

The print produced with SQ6 is the least dense of the three, which results in a significant loss of information in the light areas. It is the opposite with the SQ10 which tends to under-expose and provide very dense images. The impression with the SP-3 has a dominant green much more marked than on our smartphone screen. This phenomenon has not been repeated in the rest of our production. From the point of view of details, it is the image obtained with the SQ10 that offers the best reproduction, provided that it is not in dark areas. SP-3 and SQ6 are neck and neck on this point.

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On more common subjects, there is again a very large difference in rendering between the. SQ6 and the SQ10 which always tends to provide very dense photos. The images taken by the SQ6 are always a little overexposed but their general rendering is more pleasant. 

To conclude, if the quality of the images of SQ6 is not perfect, it is in our eyes very good. We prefer it to that of SQ10. But to choose, our preference is on the results obtained with the SP-3, probably because we were able to select photos that deserved to be drawn. However, this process does not have the charm of taking a snapshot and the surprise of discovering your photo appear.

STRONG POINTS

• Charm of the square format.
• Different shooting modes.
• Colored filters.
• View counter.
• Ease of use.

WEAK POINTS

• CR2 batteries.
• Fragile battery door.
• Viewfinder on the right.
• Strong parallax.

CONCLUSION

If you choose to take a snapshot, it is not for the perfection of the rendering of the images. But for the charm of the film, the approach and the final object. All these criteria are met in the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 which we found very reliable and pleasant to handle. The square format has seduced us since its inception and of the three cameras on the market that use it, we preferred the quality of the SQ6. It surpasses the automatic results of the SQ10 and the lack of precision of Lomo’Instant Square .

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