Instax Square 2: give those colour filters a three-print test

The Fujifilm Instax Square 2 puts Warm and Cool colour settings on a camera that uses Instax Square film. In Fotopolis’s launch report, Krzysztof Mularczyk describes a switch that lets you choose the colour treatment before making the photograph, with Off available for the usual rendering.

That is an invitation to spend three frames on the same subject. Before deciding whether a colour control deserves a place beside the shutter button, I would want to see what it does to something familiar: a face, a favourite mug, the paint on the kitchen door. A feature name tells you the intended mood. A print tells you whether you like it.

Choose the colour, then make the photograph

The interesting part is the commitment. With an instant photograph, you cannot take the finished print back through the camera and change the setting. Choosing a treatment becomes part of making the exposure, alongside choosing where to stand and what to include.

For me, that makes the switch worth investigating. Does Warm help a portrait feel the way you remember the room? Does Cool give a subject a useful distance, or simply make you wish you had left the switch alone? Neither answer needs to apply to every photograph. The useful discovery would be one situation in which you reach for a setting deliberately.

There is another variable arriving alongside the camera. Mularczyk reports that Fujifilm’s new Square Soft Haze film is intended to produce lower saturation and contrast than standard Square film. Those are manufacturer-described characteristics in the Fotopolis coverage, rather than conclusions from our own prints.

I would keep that film out of the first comparison. Changing the film and the camera’s colour setting together would leave you wondering which choice produced the result you liked.

Give three frames the same job

Start with ordinary Square film and a subject that will stay put. Choose steady light, settle on a camera position and keep the framing and distance as consistent as you can. Include a few familiar colours and something white or grey, so you have more to judge than a general impression.

Make one photograph with the switch at Off, one at Warm and one at Cool. Record the order immediately in a notebook. Let the prints develop fully before comparing them, and view them together under the same light.

This is a practical comparison, with room for the small variations that come with repeated photographs. If the daylight changes halfway through, write that down. If your subject moves towards a window, start another comparison when you can. The point is to make the differences easier to interpret.

Look first at the subject you care about. Would you give someone that portrait? Does the white cup still belong in the scene? Then look at the shadows and background. A treatment might flatter the main subject while making another part of the picture distracting.

If a setting wins, try it again on another occasion before making it your default. And if Off wins, those other frames have still taught you something useful. You have bought yourself a reason to leave a control alone.

What would make it worth buying?

In his Phototrend announcement, Louis Royer reports a move to four AA batteries. He also describes three focus zones and says the built-in flash cannot be disabled. I would weigh those everyday operating choices alongside the colour switch: they affect how you approach a photograph before any question of colour preference arises.

Royer’s report, published on 14 October 2026, gives an announced French price of €109 and an expected arrival in late October. That is a dated launch figure, rather than a confirmed shop price or stock check for today.

These are launch reports, so I would reserve judgement on the prints. An existing Square owner could begin by asking what photograph their present camera prevents them from making. Someone entering the format could ask whether this combination of simple exposure and deliberate colour choice sounds enjoyable enough to keep using.

Read Mularczyk and Royer for the announcements, then, when you can borrow or try a Square 2, give Off, Warm and Cool the same subject—and let the three prints make their case.