Vince Lupo
Whatever
I never planned on getting a Leica Sofort, but I won it on Friday night so I can't really complain. It was the 1st Place Award for the Leica Store DC's National Juried Exhibition, and I was the lucky guy 🙂
My only other experience with Instax Mini film was with the Fuji SP-1 wireless printer for my X100T, and I never liked the results from it. I was hoping that the Sofort would change my mind about this format, but so far the answer is no.
Below are my first shots -- I have to say they're pretty 'meh'. This is the Leica-branded monochrome film, and I find that the blacks aren't really black and the highlights are generally blown. On the plus side, the photos are reasonably sharp.
The camera has three exposure modes -- 'normal', 'brighter' and 'darker', so beyond that there isn't really a way to control exposure that I can see. It's pretty much just 'point and shoot'. Most of the photos below were taken at the 'darker' setting. Plus you can't control depth of field at all (it's an f/12.7 lens), so it's a bit of a challenge to get creative with it (at least for me!). You're really just left to use composition/perspective to make anything interesting, so perhaps that's a good thing for me. Definitely will test my abilities!
I think the next step is to try out the Fuji-branded monochrome film to see if there's a difference (I watched a YouTube video that demonstrated that there is), and then check out the colour film options. I'll post additional photos here as I progress (or regress???).
For what it is, the camera itself seems reasonably well-made, though it has the cryptic phrase 'designed by Leica' (meaning, Made in China) printed on the box. Plastic body and lens of course, though there is a bit of metal here and there (specifically the shutter release button, the camera strap lugs and yes, the red dot). Functionally it's interesting -- you do have some options in the menu (scene-shooting options, flash options, macro, self-timer, plus a couple of other things). It also has a tripod socket, a pretty decent camera strap and a rechargeable battery with charger (along with North American and European plug options). The camera also has an auto-shutoff feature if it hasn't been used for about 5 minutes, which is both good and not so good: If you have the camera's menu options set a certain way (flash off, macro on etc), once the camera auto-shuts off, you have to reset everything once you turn it back on to shoot. I have no clue how the Sofort compares with the Fuji Instax Mini 90, but one thing I know is that it's more than twice the price!
Overall the camera has potential, but I'm not sure how much I'm going to use it ($1 per mediocre shot will get a bit expensive after a while!). If anyone has any experience with the Sofort or thoughts about it, please do share!
My Big Prize!
From Dusk Till Dawn 3 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
First Shots
First Shots from the Sofort by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
My only other experience with Instax Mini film was with the Fuji SP-1 wireless printer for my X100T, and I never liked the results from it. I was hoping that the Sofort would change my mind about this format, but so far the answer is no.
Below are my first shots -- I have to say they're pretty 'meh'. This is the Leica-branded monochrome film, and I find that the blacks aren't really black and the highlights are generally blown. On the plus side, the photos are reasonably sharp.
The camera has three exposure modes -- 'normal', 'brighter' and 'darker', so beyond that there isn't really a way to control exposure that I can see. It's pretty much just 'point and shoot'. Most of the photos below were taken at the 'darker' setting. Plus you can't control depth of field at all (it's an f/12.7 lens), so it's a bit of a challenge to get creative with it (at least for me!). You're really just left to use composition/perspective to make anything interesting, so perhaps that's a good thing for me. Definitely will test my abilities!
I think the next step is to try out the Fuji-branded monochrome film to see if there's a difference (I watched a YouTube video that demonstrated that there is), and then check out the colour film options. I'll post additional photos here as I progress (or regress???).
For what it is, the camera itself seems reasonably well-made, though it has the cryptic phrase 'designed by Leica' (meaning, Made in China) printed on the box. Plastic body and lens of course, though there is a bit of metal here and there (specifically the shutter release button, the camera strap lugs and yes, the red dot). Functionally it's interesting -- you do have some options in the menu (scene-shooting options, flash options, macro, self-timer, plus a couple of other things). It also has a tripod socket, a pretty decent camera strap and a rechargeable battery with charger (along with North American and European plug options). The camera also has an auto-shutoff feature if it hasn't been used for about 5 minutes, which is both good and not so good: If you have the camera's menu options set a certain way (flash off, macro on etc), once the camera auto-shuts off, you have to reset everything once you turn it back on to shoot. I have no clue how the Sofort compares with the Fuji Instax Mini 90, but one thing I know is that it's more than twice the price!
Overall the camera has potential, but I'm not sure how much I'm going to use it ($1 per mediocre shot will get a bit expensive after a while!). If anyone has any experience with the Sofort or thoughts about it, please do share!
My Big Prize!
From Dusk Till Dawn 3 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
First Shots
First Shots from the Sofort by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
