Bringing Out The Diana f+ Instant

My wife's family has a lot of traditions, one of which is the annual Christmas Tree Day. On this occasion, we go out in search of that iconic item for the holiday season - the fresh cut Christmas tree!!

Being the photographer that I am, a camera comes with me!! :D

This year, I decided to change it up a little bit and not only document the occasion with my digital mirrorless kit(which my wife affectionately calls my gimp loadout*) but also bring the Diana f+ Instant with me as well.

For sure there were quite a few images taken with the digital cameras, but i thought that I would share some of the Diana images.

The Diana f+ instant back uses the Fuji Instax mini instant film. One of the frustrations with the Diana is that the viewfinder is not wildly accurate, so sometimes you get a framing that is not exactly what you envisioned. The best way to combat that frustration? Use the camera more! Like anything else, get familiar with and learn your gear in order to use it to its fullest potential. I do not use it enough to be 100% accurate.

This is one of those inaccurate framed shots.  I thought there would be more to the right side of the image then there was.

The other thing I learned about the Diana and its fabulous plastic lenses - flare and low contrast when pointing into a light source. In this case - the sun. There are 2 images here that got blasted because I was shooting toward the sun.

Lastly, in order to share these with you, I scanned these using an old Epson all in one device. The printer stopped being useful years ago, but the scanner is still kicking and going strong. Imported into light room and they are treated just like any other digital asset.
Please forgive the dirty scans, my scanner is in need of a good cleaning. LOL.

This is one that I accidentally over exposed.  They were in the shade, so I put the camera in "partly cloudy" mode.  I should have used the meter on my camera to verify.

*gimp loadout is a term that spawned itself when I needed to find a quality camera kit to work around the fact that my arm surgery from early November 2014/recovery process did not allow me to (a) hold a camera/lens of any appreciable weight and (b) the brace they had me in did not allow me to hold a camera in such a fashion that I can utilize the viewfinder. Anyone who is familiar with the Call of Duty console/PC games will understand the "loadout" reference. If not, it is the unit of armaments and skill sets that your character deploys into the imaginary battlefield in the game.

Diana f+ Camera Has Just Arrived

After several weeks of waiting, I've finally received my Diana f+ Instant Camera.

The kit I received came with the Diana f+ camera, the Instax Mini back(adapter lens), the 120 film back(120 take up spool and spool adapter,masks for endless panorama and 12 shot), Diana Flash, flash adapters, flash gels, and manuals and close up adapter.

My first impression is that despite the camera being made of plastic, it appears to be pretty well made.  All the backs and adapters fit together well and all the buttons function as they should.  The controls are pretty straight forward.

Getting the kit seemed like the best deal.  I really wanted the instant back to potentially use with some other film cameras I have.  My thought was that if the plan didn't work out, I could still use the Diana camera with the Instax Mini film.

Instead of having numeric representations of shutter speed and aperture, the Diana camera has letters and symbols.  Below I will list the generally accepted values for the settings on the camera(culled from various sources around the internet and my own experience with the camera):

Shutter Speed
"N" = 1/60th
"B" = bulb - as on any camera with this setting, the shutter stays open as long as the shutter release is held down.  The Diana comes with a small plastic piece that can be placed into the shutter slot to keep it down during particularly long exposures.  The way I use this, is that I setup the camera in the position and aperture setting I want to use.  I leave the lens cap on, set the shutter into the down position and then remove the lens cap.  Wait for the desired time, then replace the lens cap.

Aperture
Pinhole = f/150
Sunny = f/22
Party Cloudy = f/16
Cloudy = f/11

Film
Any 120 film will work with the 120 back installed.  If using a meter to determine exposure, do so as normal.
The instant back uses the Fuji Instax Mini film.  This film is rated at ISO 800.  When the adapter lens is fitted to the camera body, behind the lens, it drops the exposure by 1 EV, so treat the film as ISO 400 when taking into account exposure readings.

My one issue with the Diana Instant Back is that it uses the not common CR2 batteries. It would be great if the camera allowed for use of AA or AAA batteries(alkalines or rechargeables).  The CR2 are expensive purchased locally, so I recommend getting them from an online retailer.  I've found them online in various places for half of what it would cost me in a brick and mortar store.

Exposure
This is an all manual camera, so I used my light metering app on my Moto X to verify the what the instructions for the camera said to some hard values.  It was pretty spot on.

Parting Thoughts
Really - this is a fun camera to shoot.  I still have a lot more time I want to spend with it, but I can see me using this more and more.  Once I get the hang of it, I'll try and adapt the Instax back to other analog cameras I own to see if we can make it work with them as well.