When Fuji announced the Instax Mini Evo Cinema, I thought it was just another retro hardware take on their digital camera-instant photo printer concept. I have a regular retro Evo camera, it’s aggressively fine with a cute retro design. But after watching the review on In An Instant, I now appreciate its utter insanity.

The biggest thing is that it has what can only be described as analog printing lock-in for cloud storage. Because when you shoot video clips, you can view and share them in the cloud. But you can only download them AFTER you print a photo on the device using a still from the clip. AND that photo has an obnoxious QR code on it. In some ways, I like the concept. You have something physical to share, give someone a physical reminder of a video. That’s kind of cool. But REQUIRING it before you can download your own media is… insane? It’s analog-gated DRM?

Yes, you can grab clips from an internal SD card. But then you lose the convenience fact one would want from “modern” hardware, even if it is vintage-inspired. If you have to copy off an SD card, why not just get a much cheaper vintage camcorder or point and shoot, shoot some lovely vintage crappy digital video, and do the same thing?

I totally get loving the look. The dials look really satisfying. The form factor is a delight. And some of the software touches don’t seem to be cheap filters. I applaud the audacity of the concept, but it doesn’t scratch my film nostalgia itch.