Lomography Instant – Uncontrollable, Unpredictable, and Somehow Worth a Few Shots

I mentioned the Lomography Instant briefly in my earlier article about the Polaroid Go, and I think it deserves its own short story.

The Lomo Instant was my first instant camera. It became my everyday companion for capturing small moments of my wife since 2019. I wouldn’t use an SLR for those purposes. Whenever I picked one up, a ‘serious mindset’ kicked in and I started overthinking, trying to make every shot technically worthy. It quickly became exhausting.

When I bought the Lomography Instant, I chose it over Fujifilm’s Instax mainly because of a comparison video showing how it often overexposed under sunlight, creating that typical ‘lomo vibe’ that the millennial instinct inside me could not resist. I also loved its moving front panel, a brilliant design compared with Instax’s popped-out lens which reminds me of those consumer grade 5x zoom point-and-shooters from the 1990s.

Unfortunately, that is where most of the good news ends.

This camera is a total disaster when it comes to exposure. It is uncontrollable and unpredictable. Despite having four exposure modes that sound great on paper, it’s nearly impossible to get a correctly exposed shot in either auto or manual mode, whether the flash is on or off. The shutter speed seems to stay around 1/125 second except for bulb mode, which means it only captures something under strong sunlight or with fill flash. In bright light or with flash, it almost always overexposes. And for anything shot in less ideal light with the flash off, or slightly beyond its very short flash range when the flash is on, the result is often completely blacked out. Most of the time I ended up with either overexposed or underexposed frames, and sometimes both within the same image.

I am listing mine on eBay, though I do not expect it to sell. I just hope whoever buys such a camera has a high tolerance for film wastage. It is good for experiments, and once in a while, it gives you a moody and unexpected shot. Those rare moments remind you why you spend money on such a toy in the first place.

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