Lomography Diana Instant Square review

Instant cameras have been all the rage for a few years now, and a camera like the Lomography Diana Instant Square is sure to catch your eye. With its cool, retro aesthetics, interchangeable lenses and the potential for pinhole photography, the camera sounds like it has a lot going for it — but sadly, that’s not true.

The Diana Instant Square is very unpredictable, and the photos don’t always develop fully. They also have a vignette around the frame, and the camera itself feels very plasticky. The non-ergonomic handling and awkward shutter lever make it uncomfortable to use too. Compared to the best instant cameras, it falls way short.

For the complete breakdown, read my full Lomography Diana Instant Square review.

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? An analog instant camera with retro aesthetics and interchangeable lenses
• Who is it for? For people who want an eye-catching instant camera
• How much does it cost? The Lomography Diana Instant Square is available for $129 / £79
• What do we like? The fact that you can change lenses, it looks cool, and it’s great for pinhole photography
• What don’t we like? Prints have a vignette effect, results are unpredictable, it’s very plasticky, and its controls and size make for awkward handling

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Specs

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Price & availability

The Lomography Diana Instant Square has a retail price of $129 / £79 at Lomography. While my British comrades can get the base model without the flash, Americans will have to spend a little extra as the only available model includes an attachable flash. If you’re in the rainy British isles and want the flash too, you can grab it with the camera for £115 at Lomography.

The Diana Instant Square supports interchangeable lenses, and you can buy the deluxe set which includes fisheye, telephoto, wide-angle and super-wide-angle lenses for $179 at Amazon U.S. / £124 at Lomography U.K.

Given its square film format nature, the Diana Instant Square finds itself sharing the space with the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ40 ($149) and the Polaroid Now+ Gen 2 ($149). While neither of these support interchangeable lenses, they take better photos, in my opinion, which I’ll go into detail about in this review.

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Design & build quality

As soon as I took the Lomography Diana Instant Square out of its box, I was struck by its retro design and cool looks. This instant camera has a black body with a wraparound textured pattern, and a teal top. It resembles the cameras of old, just like the Lomography Lomo’Instant Square Glass ($149).

The Diana Instant Square measures 5.51 x 4.52 x 3.85 inches and weighs 14.18oz without batteries and film, so it’s a chunky camera. It’s similar in size to the Lomo’Instant Square Glass but unlike that camera, it doesn’t have a folding design for easy transport. You’ll need a backpack to carry it around. I did so and with the camera in my bag, I didn’t feel weighed down.

However, the Diana Instant Square’s uber cool looks are massively let down by its overtly plasticky build quality. The textured pattern isn’t nice to touch and tapping the teal part with my nail revealed a hollow sound. All of this makes me question the camera’s durability.

Cheaper cameras, like the Polaroid Go Gen 2 ($79) are made of higher-quality plastic that feels lovely to touch and you can tell those cameras are more durable simply at a glance. Even my coworkers pointed out that the Diana Instant Square looked cheap — not a good look for a camera that costs $129.

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Lens & viewfinder

Like I mentioned earlier, you can get lens attachments for the Lomography Diana Instant Square. The stock lens that comes with every unit is a 75mm retractable one with three focus zones: 1-2m for selfies and portraits, 2-4m for group photos, and 4m-∞ for landscapes. This means that you should be able to use this instant camera for any type of shot you want: landscape, portrait, et al.

The Diana Instant Square has four aperture settings: f/11 (cloudy), f/19 (partly sunny), f/32 (sunny), and f/150 (pinhole). The camera should be able to shoot well in bright and dimly lit environments both, but as you’ll soon see, I’m not entirely convinced by its shooting capabilities.

You get a separate viewfinder attachment that slots in at the top of the camera. This means that you can’t always properly frame your subject. At least the viewfinder is comfortable to use, even for someone with prescription glasses — unlike the one on the Lomography Lomo’Instant Square Glass which was too small.

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Controls

The Lomography Diana Instant Square has a few controls you’ll need to familiarize yourself with. To turn on the camera, you’ll find the power switch on its right edge, along with the multiple exposures button.

The shutter button is more of a lever, located on the right-hand side of the lens. It makes a satisfying click sound when used, but I have to say, using it is not easy. I had to extend my index finger to reach it which proved fatiguing over time.

It was also very awkward to use when taking selfies as I had to use my thumb. This is the same issue I had while testing the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo ($349). I would have much preferred a regular shutter button. I get that Lomography is going for a retro look but I can’t fully appreciate the vintage aesthetics when they’re this impractical.

Next to the shutter level, you'll find a switch that lets you swap between two shutter modes: standard (N) that sets the shutter speed to 1/100s and bulb (B) that slows the shutter speed down to 30s. The lens is detachable — all you need to do is twist it to remove it. So if you’ve bought any of the optional lenses, it should be easy enough to twist them onto the camera.

A focus range pointer sits on the lens, allowing you to choose between three ranges. I found it easy to quickly swap between these — but they don’t always work as intended, as you’ll see in the image quality section below.

Last but not least, the lens also houses the aperture lever. I shot in bright conditions outdoors so I swapped between the f/19 and f/32 setting as needed — and this lever worked well to flick between the two.

Overall, the Diana Instant Square has a straightforward control scheme. I only wish the shutter lever was better placed and it was a button instead.

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Image & print quality

Analog instant cameras can be unpredictable, and the fact that you can’t preview images before printing them means chances of you wasting film on a poor shot are high. Most of the instant cameras I’ve tested (and I’ve tested a lot) haven’t had a problem with capturing what I wanted them to — but the Lomography Diana Instant Square has changed that.

Focusing proved to be a challenge in my testing. Swapping to the 1-2m range for close-up shots of subjects yielded black prints, regardless of what I tried — shooting indoors and outdoors, in different lighting conditions, different subjects, etc. I burnt through so much film trying to get the shot I wanted and it just didn’t work. Imagine my frustration.

It’s also worth noting that on photos which do develop properly — should you get lucky — you’ll see a vignette around the frame which often ruins the image. A little vignette is fine, giving a retro effect, but this is a bit too far for my liking. You can see examples of the vignette effect above.

I won’t lie, I like how the colors have been reproduced in the test shots above, but don’t like that the photos are underexposed and not as bright as they would have been had I taken them with a Fujifilm Instax camera.

The Diana Instant Square is fitted with a selfie mirror above the lens — with the camera’s name plastered across it — but like I said, using the awkward shutter lever to take a selfie is a hassle. You can see an example above. My face isn’t in focus either, even though I had the range set to 1-2m.

This isn’t to say I’ve hated every photo the Diana Instant Square has taken. Above are a few examples of the photos I really like. I like the colors of the swans contrasting with the darker shades of water, and the photo of the chairs has turned out nicely too.

One of the Diana Instant Square’s unique features is that you can use it for pinhole photography by twisting off and removing the lens. Basically, a very small hole lets the light in and hits the negative (or film). Because the pinhole aperture is so small (f/150), the exposure length needs to be longer than usual to get a proper photo.

To do so, I set the aperture to f/150 and swapped to bulb mode. I used the included plastic chip to sit it in the shutter lever’s groove to keep it depressed, and I left it stationery to take a few photos. You can see the results above. I think these photos turned out great — you can even read the Hover branding on the upright drones. Using the pinhole seems to have gotten rid of the awful vignette effect, and the colors look a little better too.

The Diana Instant Square has been more unpredictable than any of the other analog instant cameras I’ve tested. Some of the photos are good but most of them are a flop, sadly.

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Film cost & yield

The Lomography Diana Instant Square uses Fujifilm Instax square film, a pack (10 shots) of which costs $16 / £12 at Amazon. This means that one shot costs approximately $1.6. This isn’t particularly cheap.

In comparison, Instax wide film used by the Instax Wide 400 ($149) costs $18 / £16 per double film pack (20 shots), and Polaroid Go film used by the Polaroid Go Gen 2 costs $19 / £18 for 16 pieces of film.

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Battery life

The Lomography Diana Instant Square uses four AAA batteries which are easily procurable and chances are you already have some spares lying around. Lomography doesn’t specify just how long a set will last, but I comfortably got through three packs (30 shots) and still had charge left. Since there’s no battery indicator, there’s no way to tell either.

Disposable batteries aren’t easily recyclable so if environmental impact is a concern, you can always grab a pack of rechargeable AAA batteries instead.

Lomography Diana Instant Square review: Verdict

The Lomography Diana Instant Square looks cool with a retro aesthetic, and it supports interchangeable lenses to give you more creative freedom. Also, if you want to kick it old school and do some pinhole photography, you can with the Diana Instant Square.

But I wish the Diana Instant Square wasn’t so unpredictable. I had many failed shots — some that came out fully black. I know there’s a certain degree of risk involved in instant photography but this much doesn’t seem right. The camera itself is very plasticky and handling is awkward, which takes the fun out of it.

There are better alternatives out there, like the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ40 or the Polaroid Now+ Gen 2, that make spending the extra money well worth it. The Diana Instant Square, unfortunately, fails to meet expectations.