Fujifilm's Instax Square 2 puts a warm/cool filter switch on a camera built much like the SQ1

Picking up the Square 2 means making two choices before the shutter: how far away the subject is, and what tint to put over it ^[6][5]. The pitch in The Verge's report is customizing the look and feel of the photo ^[13]. The camera's version of that is a switch that slides one of two colored filters in front of the lens ^[5]. In Fujifilm's wording, as The Verge relays it, Warm gives a "subtle golden tone" and Cool is "crisp, blue-toned" ^[5]. Exposure and the xenon flash adjust on their own ^[10].

On function and layout, the body is mostly the SQ1's. Gizmodo calls the Square 2 "very similar in functionality" to earlier square Instax cameras like the SQ1 ^[9], and The Verge describes a similar design and layout ^[8]. The shell is what changed. Fujifilm calls it a "clean, new sculpted body" ^[12], and The Verge says it looks like the SQ1 sanded down to round off its sharp edges ^[8].

The film is where the bill grows. At The Verge's $18.99 for a 10-exposure Soft Haze pack ^[4], each print costs about $1.90 ^[14]. Six packs cost $113.94, under the $119.95 camera price The Verge reports ^[1]. The seventh pack takes film spend to $132.93 ^[15]. Gizmodo's rounded figures, $120 for the camera and $19 for the film, agree ^[3].

Neither report includes usage data on how often buyers move the switch. Teams tend to assume a visible new control gets used. Here that is an assumption, and the documented fact is a two-position switch on a camera that skips digital functionality ^[7].

We would buy the Square 2 for someone who wants to pick a tint in hand, with no screen or app involved, and who will shoot fewer than seven packs over the camera's life. The cost of that choice is that a wrong tint goes onto film at about $1.90 a print ^[14]. Two questions sort the decision: does the person want to choose a look at the moment of the shot, and will they shoot seven or more packs ^[15]?

Wants the look, under seven packs: buy it. The switch is the reason, and at Soft Haze prices the body is the larger cost. Wants the look, seven or more: buy it and budget for film, which is now the larger cost. Does not want the look, under seven packs: the switch adds nothing, so compare bodies on everything else. Does not want the look, seven or more: ignore the camera price and compare film cost per print.