Amateur Photographer - UK (2019-09-13)

50 7 September 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113

Testbench CAMERA TEST

pressing a large button
on its side; it then hinges
away from the body, bringing the
lens assembly with it. To fold the
camera up again you fi rst set the
lens to infi nity, and then press
another large button beside it.
Unlike those old roll-fi lm folders,
the body shell is plastic rather than
metal. But it still feels pretty well
made, aside perhaps from the
cheap-feeling pop-up fl ash. The
body has a nice leatherette coating,
along with a surprisingly effective
chunky rubber handgrip. The strap
lugs are mounted on one side,
which works rather well.

£78. These can also be bought in

a kit with the camera.

Shutter speeds are set using an

analogue dial on top of the body,

but controlled electronically, which

means the camera can operate

in both aperture-priority auto and

manual exposure modes. Manually

selectable speeds range from

1sec to 1/500sec in whole-stop

increments, along with a bulb

option. The dial also has an A

setting for auto-exposure, fl anked

by A+1 and A-1 positions that give

plus or minus a stop of exposure

compensation. Finally, there’s a

setting for syncing the fl ash with

the end of a long exposure.

Metering uses a simple photocell

mounted on the front of the body.

Instax Wide fi lm

INSTAX Wide is, as its name suggests, the largest of Fujifi lm’s
three instant-fi lm formats, providing an image area of 99 x
62mm within a 108 x 86mm white frame. This is roughly double
the size of the mass-market Instax Mini, and the cost per print is
slightly higher too. Colour fi lm costs around £15.30 for 20 prints,
while the monochrome version is £11 for 10 shots. In other
words, you’ll want to pick your shots carefully and not waste fi lm.

An LED below the viewfi nder lights

green for correct exposure when

you depress the shutter button,

and red otherwise. The small LCD

screen underneath indicates the

ND fi lter you need to use if the

light is too bright; between shots

it displays the number of prints

remaining. There’s no fi lm-speed

dial: Instax is rated at ISO 800.

Focusing employs a separate

coincident-image rangefi nder

window that’s positioned beneath

the viewfi nder. A second ghost

image is shown overlaid on the

main view, and by rotating the

focus ring, the two images can be

brought into alignment, at which

point the lens should be correctly

focused. Using a separate window

for focusing is awkward, but it

allows the rangefi nder to be

magnifi ed for increased accuracy.

The film pack slots

into the back of the

camera, behind this

hinged plastic door

Features

The InstantKon RF70 is based

around a three-element 93mm

f/5.6 lens, which Mint describes as

‘aspheric’ and ‘with glass’. With a

close focus distance of 75cm, it’s

roughly equivalent to a 35mm

f/2.4 optic on full frame in terms

of angle of view and background

blur. The aperture ring has

click-stops at f/6.7, f/8, f/11, f/16

and f/22, but the 5-bladed

diaphragm can easily be set to

intermediate positions. A bayonet

mount around the lens accepts

a hood (£48) or neutral density

fi lters, with a set of three costing

Instax film gives quite vibrant colours in

daylight, with particularly strong reds

Left: Best results are achieved when

you shoot with the sun behind you