The
Lomo'instant Automat Glass is a more advanced camera for Fuji Instax
Mini film. It was launched in 2017. There are some accessories, as a
close-up lens and a splitzer. Obviously they took their
Lomo'Instant Automat from 2016 and added a luminous, very wide angled,
multi-coated lens. Let's have a look at the
camera specs.
Technical Specifications:
Film Format: Fujifilm Instax Mini Film Exposure Area: 62mm x 46mm Lens Focal Length: 38mm (21mm equiv.) Aperture: F 4.5, F 22, (+1 -1) Shutter Speed: Bulb Mode, 8s - 1/250s Film Ejection Automatic Multiple Exposures: Unlimited Flash: guide No.: 9 Tripod Mount: Yes Film Counter: LED
Flash automatic or manual
Remote Control Range: In sunshine: 1-2m, Indoors: 5m Battery Supply 2x CR2 Remote Control Battery Supply: 1 x 1632 battery (3V)
Filter Thread: 43mm
Size: 11.4 x 8.9 x 6.7 cm Weight: 354 gr.
Some pictures of the camera:
The box.
Box open.
What's in the box: Camera, splitzer, close-up lens, the cap, which is a remote control, instructions and 2 small boxes.One little box contains picture frames, the other only picture cards.
The camera with splitzer, remote/cap and close-up lens with its 2 caps.
Cap/remote on camera.
Cap
off. Camera front. I tend to use these cameras in landscape mode, as on
the photo. But let's use the indications for the "normal" mode, which
is portrait mode for Instax Mini Film. Finder on the upper left edge,
selfie mirror, which is the
shutter button as well. Lens, flash and sensors. There are colour
filters for
the flash (guide number 9). The lens is an ultra wide lens, 21mm
equivalent. Under the lens: lens closure lock, has to be
pressed if you want to move the lens into "off" position.
Camera left and...
...right side only have a strap lug. The bottom has a tripod socket.
Camera top: ejection slot. 10 LED as a film counter.
Around the lens barrel 4 positions: off and 3 focus settings: 1m to infinity, 0.6m, 0.3m.
Back. Tiny viewer window. Remote sensor. Control panel: Flash on/off, multi exposure, lighten/darken and automatic shutter/B. Battery compartment, takes 2 CR2 batteries.
Film presence window and back opening lever.
Lens set to 0.3m.
Lens set to 1m-infinity.
Film Compartment.
Camera and close-up lens.
The close-up attachment.
Attachment and its 2 caps.
Close-up lens mounted. Brings focus down to 10cm. Framing is a guess, so count 2 photos at least to have your result. A tripod helps a lot.
The splitzer lets you take 2 half pictures on one photo with the aid of multi exposure. Splitzer mounted, one half open.
The other half open for the second picture.
Other divisions are possible, e.g. quarters.
Lomo'Instant Automat and Lomo'Instant Automat Glass. They share the same body.
The Lomo'Instant Automat Glass has a longer lens barrel than the Lomo'Instant Automat although the focal length is much shorter.
If you unpack the camera, there are a few things which are annoying. It
begins with the batteries. There are no batteries in the package, as usual nowadays. But CR2
batteries are not common, even if you have a spare one from your 80s
mini cameras, it's not enough, you need 2 of them. You can easily find
them online for reasonable prices, but if you ask a local photo dealer,
they are expensive. Same thing for the remote control: CR1632 batteries
are not common at all, a CR2025 (as in their Wide model's remote) would have been
better, or 2 common LR types. The next thing: switching the camera on
and off. You can turn the lens barrel to one of the distance settings
which switches the camera on, but to switch it off, you have to turn it
back and press a button at the same time. That's a little bit awkward.
Speaking of awkward: using the selfie mirror as a shutter button is
really strange. You usually try to keep the mirror clean, but on this
camera you have to press it with your (sticky) finger.
The
Lomo'instant Automat Glass is a lightweight camera, easy to handle.
It has an only automatic shutter (with a wide range of speeds) or B
setting, and it has only 2 apertures that you can't choose.
Multiple exposure is easy. The picture
results are fine on bright days, there is quite some vignetting, as on
other wide angle cameras. The flash is too weak. It
only lights subjects within a 2m range. So for the very close wide
angle portraits, often shown, it's fine, but it won't light a normal
interior photo. On dull days, pictures are much too dark, even with +1
compensation. The finder is ways off. If you frame a full picture in
the finder, you will have at least 50% more on your photo. Obviously
they didn't care to adapt the finder to the very wide angle lens. And it
lacks a parallax indication, at 30cm you only get half of the subject
on your photo. For an expensive glass lens, vignetting is not
acceptable. There is more vignetting towards the broader frame (or
ejection side) of the photos. I have 2 of these that do the same and
the picture result on the web seem to confirm this. I love wide angles,
so for me it's a bit of a deception.
I got my first camera via a classified ad for less than half the
price,
so i'm OK with it. Then a friend offered me a second one which was soon
defective, it had light leaks around the lens barrel. This fault has
been described on several forums. Anyway, picture results
are ways behind the
Fuji cameras. For the price of this camera you can easily get the Fuji
Instax Neo
90 which is much better. Look at the results in the Fuji camera section.
Some
gereral words about Lomography and their service: There is a 2-year
warranty, at least in Europe. My personal experience with their service
is very good. As most of their cameras are made of (cheap) plastic,
there is no repair, they just exchange your defective camera. You have
to send it in to their Vienna office at your expenses, which is not cheap
if you are not based in Austria, but they try to compensate by adding
film or so to the return. You absolutely need a proof of purchase,
there was heavy abuse by fraudulent customers they told me. So if you
buy second hand or your camera is gift, be sure to put your hands on
the proof of purchase. After the 2-years warranty period it's over.
They will try to help for the expensive not-so-plastic cameras like the
LC series, but for the rest there is no repair. Keep this in mind for
the prices you pay for older gear.
Some photos taken with this camera. Scan 400 DPI with no post-treatment. The settings - if any - are noted on the rim of the photo.
To
be fair: the pictures shown here are more than life size. If you hold
them in your hand and look at them, they seem sharper. So one about life
size first:
About life size.
Cologne center, Rothgerberbach
(main threspassing road). Bright, but not sunny day, so -1 setting. Just OK as result. Its an ultra wide angle, 21mm equivalent. Quite some vignetting towards the right side, i.e. the bottom of the photo.
Cologne center, Großer Griechenmarkt, Same day. Automatic setting. The camera flashes and doesn't get the exposure right at all. Much too dark. +1 wouldn't help.
Cologne,
Neumarkt (new market). A 3-ton Claes Oldenburg sculpture on the edge of
the building. Vignetting at the top well visible. The finder is totally off. The tip of the sculpture was at the top of the finder. Obviously Lomography didn't care to adjust the 35mm finder of the Instant Automat to the 21mm lens.
Cologne, market at St. Aposteln. Nice result.
Shop front. I framed only the front. the framing is only a quarter of the picture. This is totally unacceptable.
The camera is prone to leaks around the lens barrel. My second camera had this.
Circular light leaks.
Same leaks at 30cm setting in th shade. But very nice photo nevertheless. Lomography kindly exchanged the leaky camera against a new one.
The
picture results are OK, no fuzz about apertures as it's automatic. But
you have to correct exposure on dull or bright days, the system is not
capable to do this itself. So on bright or dull days you lack a further
correction setting. The lens vignettes a lot towards the bottom and a bit towards the top. The finder is ways off and unacceptable in my opinion. The lens of the
older and much cheaper Lomo'Instant is better concerning the vignetting. Inside photos are difficult, the
flash is too weak and photos without flash are too dark, inspite of
automatic exposure and even +1 correction. This is a
non-experimental, automatic camera. Picture results are ways behind the
Fuji cameras. As said above: For the price of this camera you can easily get the Fuji Instax Neo90 which is much better. Look at the results in the Fuji camera section.
