HIP to be Square (SQ10)

A couple of months ago I had quick look at a pre-production
Instax SQ10. It didn’t leave a deep foot print in the good impression
department for me. I just didn’t feel for it.
Fast foward to today. I collected my Instax SQ10 from Fujifilm
Singapore. I didn’t open the box till after dinner. Set the battery
to charge. When its done; I loaded a box of square instax prints.
Loading is as easy as the other Instax camera.
As the Instax SQ10 is an hybrid camera which house a LCD at the
back like any digital camera. There are 2 shutter button. Its created
for either left or right hander user to feel at ease. Finally a camera that
makes both right and left hander happy.
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One of the advantage of Instax SQ10 is, you could now select which shot to
print. Technically everyone in the group shot, could now have the
same best shot. Gone with the old days where I will always give the best
Instax prints to my buddies and keep the second best for myself. That is just
the tip of the ice berg. There are now three setting control. Vignetting control,
exposure compensation control and lastly photo filters which also includes
sepia and monochrome.
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Many have been asking if one could print an instax that the original file
is shot with another camera? As Instax SQ10 has a micro SD slot that store
all your photo that you have shot. Yes you can upload your photo into the micro
SD and use the Instax SQ10 as a printer. Just like the Instax SP-1 and SP-2.
This process is not as easy as putting the micro SD card into the Instax SQ10
and command it to print. Here is the process proper:
SQ10 MicroSD solutions
After I uploaded some files taken with GFX, X-T2, X-Pro2 and X100F in the Micro
SD and started printing via the SQ10. I would play with some of the adjustment
to suit my preferences. Another cute feature is your LCD image will slide up in
synchronize with the instax that is coming out. You will have to see it understand
how cute this process is.
As I keep printing; strangely this experience becomes a bit more magical as I
see more of my square prints as I lay them on my dining table. After tonite’s
hand on experience with the Instax SQ10, it certainly left a deeper foot
print compare to my first encounter. Do give it a shot; its actually pretty
addictive and magical. Just ensure you have a spare box of Instax film ready
and hopefully in the near future, Fujifilm will have a white version of SQ10
for me.
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Shot with GFX + GF110mm F2

9 Comments

  1. I wasn’t having any luck with Lightroom/Photoshop, even if it’s simply converting from RAW to JPEG

    I figured out another work-around for importing edited JPEGs onto the SQ10 without any additional software: Open the image in MSPaint and then Save As to a new file with the AAAA####.JPG naming format. I’ve tried a few ways to make images work and this has been the only one I’ve been able to make work.

  2. Thanks for the review. To me there are several things lacking from this camera.

    1. The highlights are blown out and the shadows are darker than on the LCD. This makes the (expensive) prints not so great…
    2. The size of the prints is too small
    3. The strictness of the JPG format is silly. I don’t have a way on my mac to convert to print
    4. The fact that there is no bluetooth or wifi printing from/transfer to my iphone is ridiculous
    5. If you manually copy the files to your computer everything you edited/changed you loose

    BUT I prefer the instax square to the instax mini
    I’m not sure if I prefer the square to the wide…

    1. I feel your “pain” in this. I am on the same boat as you. I only treat the SQ10 as a camera and not a printer,
      because to print its such a pain. You will never know Fujifilm might just have a printer version for the square
      version. Just like SP-1 and SP-2. Cheers!

  3. The camera is useless without improving the print process to at least match analogue! Why pay $300 for a 3 megapixel camera with sub-par printing!

    I may just return it and purchasing an old kodak instant and adapt it to use the square film to shoot the rest of the stock I purchased!

  4. Thanks for posting this. I have been viewing your content for a
    long time and it constantly brings me back! I’m a long time viewer, but I have never been compelled to leave
    a comment until I started my own gaming blog.

  5. hello.
    here’s a solution for OS X users.
    soo what I made was:

    – read the microsdcard on your computer.
    – open an image made with sq10 on the preview.
    – pick up another photo , and open it on preview.
    – cut the photo.
    – paste it on the photo made with the sq10.
    – save it.

    done.

  6. Hello I did not get along with PaintShop Pro software and do not know where there is an option to
    convert jpeg to jfif
    I would like to ask you for help

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