It’s always great to see independent camera makers filling the gap left by major camera companies when it comes to film cameras. We don’t always see a new film camera being made, so it’s an exciting time for the film photography community whenever news about it comes up. Paris-based photographer and “weird lens” enthusiast Mathieu Stern recently took one such camera for a spin: The NONS SL42 Mk2, an interchangeable lens instant camera!
In the video above, Stern shared what went down from his shoot with the NONS SL42 Mk2 with NONS Format Extender (NFE). He also gave a quick breakdown of the basic facts about this camera that first came out in 2020. First, it takes Instax Mini Films, which actually posed a big problem for the images that the first version produced. The instant camera uses M42 lenses that projected standard 35mm frame, but the image area of the Instax film is twice as large. This resulted in massive vignetting and didn’t fully utilize the film’s image size.
The second version fares better in terms of vignetting, but it’s still not without problems. Stern’s sample images shows which aspects can still use some improvements. Still, it’s great that he managed to get a handful of good shots that show the potential of this ingenious instant camera.
What do you think of the NONS SL42 Mk2 instant camera? Would you shoot with it? Share your insights with us in the comments below, or in our film photography group discussions if you’re already part of the Photofocus Community!
