As much as I'd like to use high-quality instant film in my mint brown leather SX-70 camera (I even have the original carrying case), I'm currently enjoying using a brand new Fuji Instax Wide 210 instant camera. The film is at least as good as SX-70 was from Polaroid, and there's no issues of developing in direct light. The prints, they have a thin, transparent film over the front that protects the image while it develops and also is part of how the chemicals from the pod get spread evenly across the image area. Whatever reason Polaroid gave for not being able to manufacture instant film any longer, Fuji is still doing it, and it's great-quality film. The Instax Wide film is sorta 16:9 wide aspect ratio, rather than square format.
The camera, it's not as elegantly engineered as the SX-70 was, and it's a bit large and klunky looking, but it works great. And comes with an attachment on the lens for close-up focusing, with a sighting aid for parallax correcting the off-center optical viewfinder during close-ups.
In the several dozen shots I've taken thus far, I've only had two shots come out that weren't good, one was when trying to capture sunlight from a window shining in my hallway and the center-weighted metering underexposed the shot (something I should have understood ahead of time and compensated for), the other was when I was trying to shield the lens from sunlight and got part of my hand in the picture (I redid the shot and the lens, it's flare-proof enough that it didn't need shielding). A great hit-ratio of good exposures and focus, compared to my past experience with Polaroid cameras.
I found the best deal for the Instax Wide film was a set of five, two-pack boxes, that's 100 exposures for less than 80 cents per shot, on a major internet sales website that's also known for books and such.
~Joe
PS: Edit to add link to
Flickr Instax 200 Wide Group site.
