As much as we adore Fujifilm cameras, they sure know how to make things frustrating sometimes. Not long ago, the Instax division announced an app for the Nintendo Switch. I own a Switch, and think this is cool thing, but it’s unnecessary. What we needed was the Fujifilm app, Cam Remote, to stop being so awful. If you look through various forums, websites, and even discussion groups, you’ll see that people hate Cam Remote. It functions improperly in various ways. During my recent vacation, it almost made me not want to bring my Fuji cameras around.
Let me preface this: I, like many of you, love Fujifilm cameras. Reviews Editor Hillary Grigonis switched over to them from Nikon because she didn’t have to do so much post-production with Fujifilm’s RAW files. They are lovely. And that also means you can be perfectly content with the JPEGs ported to your phone via Wifi. But the problem is that the Fujifilm app is garbage.
There are various ways to try to connect it to your phone. You can initialize it through the camera or through the phone. Many times, both of them don’t work. You could set up remote shooting, which will send the photos to your phone. But if you want to send other images from the camera, you have to go through a Wifi setup all over again.
Ultimately, you’ll end up resetting the whole thing all over again, or clearing the entire cache from your Apple Device’s app. If it doesn’t work the first time around, it will continue to fail. This happens over and over again, resulting in a truly annoying experience. I mean, why even have the function then?
Granted, Fujifilm isn’t alone on bad apps. Sony’s Imaging Edge has become almost as bad recently. Some other brands do a great job. Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, Leica, and OM System all have wonderful apps that are easy to work with. But overall, Fujifilm’s causes great pains.
So when I read the news that the Instax Division made an app for Nintendo Switch, I was clearly dismayed. And, in addition to all I’ve spoken on, it brought up another point.
Fujifilm cameras have the ability to print images to Instax Printers. At least, that’s what’s in the menu system. However, for a while now, they haven’t been able to do so. I wonder why this is. It makes me believe there’s something going on with the hardware or the configuration of the Wifi settings.
The reason I shoot Fujifilm is that I often don’t need to go to my computer after I’ve shot. When the Fujifilm app works, I can enjoy the photos right from my phone and share them via social media. I work to ensure I get images the way I want them in-camera. But, once I have to go to a computer to import the images, it ruins the experience. Besides Fujifilm’s ergonomics, I might as well be shooting with another camera system at that point and just embracing the editing experience.
I truly hope the Fujifilm app gets fixed sooner or later. It’s become more and more of a nuisance that Fujifilm seems to ignore.
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