Given that I love Instax in the LC-Anstax (LC-A and Instant back), and that the Instant back also fits on the LC-W, one of my first tests of the LC-W had to be some Instax…
I went with my last pack of Instax Mini Monochrome. In hindsight, color would’ve been a better choice, but the Monochrome had been in the fridge for awhile and needed to be shot, so into the LC-Wanstax it went.
Instead of the drop-in correction lens of the LC-A, the LC-W requires a lens that attaches to the front with little magnets. (When I shoot it again, I’ll try to remember to make some product shots.) It only goes on with the lens cover all the way open, but thankfully you can flip it around and the magnets still hold it to the body fine.
I think it vignettes more than the LC-Anstax, and the vignette is completely circular. I think this would work better in color, but it seems fine in monochrome too.
I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately, uninterested in almost everything. So shooting through this pack of Instax was going to take awhile.
Thankfully, I was headed off on a business trip, and wanted to take the three Lomos along, so I just had to shoot the whole pack, like, asap, and so I shot the last 5 frames in about 10 minutes around the living room. (Two are above.)
I got some strange artifacts in the upper corners of the last few frames. (The most pronounced in the last shot, of the side door above.) I guess maybe the pack got squashed at some point during its long stay in the fridge? Allahu Alim.
Anyway, it was all in all a good time, well, except for getting treated like a nosy cracker instead of a Muslim brother at the first car inspection place. It’s housed in a couple of bays of an old carwash nearby, and I wanted to shoot the carwash, the water, the old soap dispensers, the weeds in the cracks of the foundation, but the owner ran out and told me he “had problems with people” (he spat that out at me) “photographing here before. There are tools and stuff, you know.”
“No problem, brother,” I smiled sweetly. “Assalamu Aleikum.” And I shot one frame through the fence, then waited till my wife’s car was done and left, never to return. (My car also needed an inspection, and instead of going to the nearby Muslim, I took it to a hispanic gentleman in Hurst who treated me like any other customer, rather than some snoopy cracker agent-type. You can see pictures of his fishies on my Instagram.)
Yes, the encounter seemed innocuous, and the brother was polite and friendly about it, but I’ve lived amongst the (born) Muslims long enough to read the signs—the way he ran out when he saw me with the cameras, the way his eyes moved, the way he tried to block my path, and the way he twitched a bit and looked like he made a mistake when I gave him the greeting of peace, the greeting that he’s required to, but didn’t, return—and if the sweet, friendly, racist brother that runs the nearby car repair place wants Caucasian happy snapper photographers to visit his shop, he needs to stop suspecting all the whiteys of being out to get him.
Shoot. Some of us are even Muslims too. Some of us look at him and see a brother in faith and humanity, like the Quran and the Prophet, peace be upon him, told us.
I’m sorry, but shit like that winds me up.
Anyway.
The LC-W is a fun camera. Super wide, like the Wai Wai, and easier to load (and shoots half frame and Instax too), but without the great flare.
The fit of the Instax correction lens is a little bit sloppy, and you better make sure it’s on square, otherwise, you’ll end up with some distortion (as in the top part of the chain link fence, above). Otherwise, the LC-Wanstax is just as much fun as the LC-Anstax, and I look forward to shooting it again.
Just not around the nearby carwash, sadly.
