Instax Link Wide – tried and tested

Trust Instax to bring us the nostalgia and of course lots of fun! Yup! Fujifilm is back with the Instax Link Wide, another instant film printer that, in my humble opinion, is going to be a great success.

Fujifilm have just released the Instax Link Wide and I’ve managed to get my grubby little paws on one for the last few weeks. Let me tell you, I have not been able to stop “playing”.

To be honest it’s about time the wide prints made it back to light and at least we won’t have to lugging that Wide 300 around too much. I know, I know, you purests still love that baby but the printer is just so much easier. So while I love the Wide 300 camera, I am impressed with what Fujifilm have managed to come up with in terms of this Instax Link Wide printer.

Look and feel

Mocha Gray, and Ash White are the colours the Instax Link Wide comes in, giving the printer a very classic look and feel.

Size wise, the unit is 139mm×127.5mm×33.7mm, making it portable and easy to fit in a bag, quite comfortably.

Of course the Instax Link Wide prints Instax prints, but the WIDE ones. The 62mm×99mm prints which are actually landscape oriented—the large edge of the white border is at the bottom of the long edge, but feel free to print portrait – I do, all the time!

Similarly to the Instax Mini Link – the button on the front switches the Wide on and lights up when printing is in progress. You can set that light colour to your preference in settings, if you’re so inclined. On the bottom is the charging port and the door for the film cartridge is at the back. Fujifilm claims the battery lasts for about 100 prints per charge but I haven’t managed to wear it out yet! 100 prints is a lot BUT I’m well on my way!

Set up

The Instax Link Wide printer is a wireless printer that connects to your smartphone or tablet using IOS or Android. Connect the printer to your computer to charge it and turn it on. Then load the film pack and connect it to your device. 

The App

The Link Wide app is quite easy to use and you can choose plain print, a collage print, or an editable template print. Simple and collage prints are as simple as picking the format to start with and then selecting the image(s) from your image collection.

The app allows you to zoom in, rotate, and crop while the correction button allows you to adjust things like brightness, contrast, and saturation levels.

There are plenty of filters to choose from or try the “Instax Rich Mode”. I even printed a photo from a video which is an SQ20 feature favourite or go for a collage.

There are also dozens of pre-made, customisable templates or try the “Sketch, Edit & Print.” feature. There’s just so much to play with.

You can also print photos with a QR code in four different ways, which is super handy for professionals that like to use the Instax as a marketing tool. You can pop a link, a recorded message, a location or a hidden message in that QR code.

Price

Locally I’ve seeing the printer for between R2 500 and R2 999 here in South Africa and a pack of the film prints goes for just under R200. Here’s a link for my readers not in South Africa that might want to get one off of Amazon!

So what did I think?

As with most of the Instax products this one is a lot of fun (I’ve said that over and over again in this post!) and I can see a lot of potential for professional use as well as just at home with the family kind creative time!

The app has a great interface and lots of options available to you.

It’s also portable enough and I love that they’ve added features to the app which are simple to use and still offer a lot of personalisation.

I also love that they’ve given the Instax Link Wide a little stand, so you can have the printer on display at home or stand it up when you’re out and bout.

I do think they could have made it a USB C charging port though.

Product Specifications

Recording method: 3-color exposure with OLED

Film used: FUJIFILM instax WIDE Instant Film (sold separately)

Number of prints: 10 prints per pack

Image size: 62mm×99mm

Supported image size: 800 × 1260 dot

Printing resolution: 12.5 dots/mm (318 dpi, 80 μm dot pitch)

Printing levels: 256 levels per color (RGB)

Interface: Standard compliance: Bluetooth Ver. 4.2 (BLE)

Supported image format: JPEG, PNG, HEIF, DNG

Printing time: Image recording – photo output (fed out): Approximately 12 sec.

Approximate printing capacity: Approximately 100 prints (from full charge)
*The number of prints depends on the usage conditions.

Power supply: Lithium ion battery (internal type: not removable)

Charging time: Approximately 80 to 120 minutes (Charging time depends on the temperature and battery remaining level)

Power consumption: Approximately 3 W

Operating environment: Temperature: +5 oC to +40 oC Humidity: 20% to 80% (no condensation)

Main unit dimensions: 139mm×127.5mm×33.7mm (excluding projecting parts）

Main unit mass: Approximately 340 g (excluding film pack)

Supplied accessory: USB cable (BOD700-101, Length: 30 cm)
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