I'm gonna get this out of the way first, I've been shooting this camera for about a month now and I can say pretty confidently that this is the highest quality fully intergrated instant film camera on the market today. Bar none.
The quality of your photos from the SL660 is pretty much dependent on what lens you shoot. The lens I've been shooting is the Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 (EF). This lens is not really optimal for the SL660. You can see in that third photo that stopped up, there's huge vignetting in like a airplane window shape. Pretty cool actually IMO but not super practical for more general purpose shoots. Stopped down anywhere lower than f/2.8 will lose most all sharpness. If you're using either of the NONS kit lenses you can buy with the camera, you'll get pretty darn good results once you get past the (steeeep) learning curve.
The SL660 is fully manual, the shutter speed doesn't go super fast, if you want to shoot at low apertures outdoors you'll need to use an ND filter (prolly an ND2). One thing I haven't seen anyone else mention is the minimum and maximum values that the light meter will recommend. The lowest value is f/1.0, the highest is f/99. You don't have to use the camera's on board light meter of course, but it's handy and I've found it to be pretty accurate. It's a good idea to shoot it like slide film and under certain circumstances you'll want to either under or overexpose by 1-2 stops. Instax has VERY poor dynamic range so there's a bit of finagling you gotta do to get decent latitude.
A lot of people seem to take issue with the viewfinder having weird coverage, I personally love the viewfinder. I don't usually need to know exactly where the edge of frame is for my compositions most of the time so I don't mind. It's fairly bright (also depends on the lens), and focusing is pretty easy. Obviously it's an SLR so that's SUPER nice to have and I don't really have any issues with the viewfinder.
Now one of the biggest reasons I bought this camera is that because it shoots any kind of lens, you can drop the aperature and get so much light back for free, I though potentially it could be used for night street photography handheld. And honestly, yeah it can. It's not always the best experience, but that second shot really blew me away. Initially I was critical of NONS for using an EF mount, because you're shooting a medium format camera, on what's technically a medium format film, yet we're only using full frame lenses. If we shot on a medium format mount, we likely wouldn't need that optical extender inside the mount, and get 2 free stops of light back. I will stand by the logic of that idea BUT I understand why NONS went the route they did and honestly wouldn't change it myself. There are plenty of full frame fully manual EF mount lenses still being manufactured today, and you can't really say that about medium format lenses in general. I like that EF is adaptable, and for most people, if they have a lens on hand, it's most likely a 35mm lens which is pretty easy to use on the SL660.
There's a couple things most reviewer's don't mention that I was wondering before I bought so I thought i'd dump em here for anyone else who has oddly specific questions.
The optical element inside the SL660 looks like it's convex from a lot of the pictures you see online, I was worried that some lenses would interfere with that optical element and potentially scratch it, turns out it's actually concave so I wouldn't be worried there. It's also glass so yeah. If you look through the viewfinder without a lens attached, you'll just get a very blurry image, since it's a very wide opening, taking a shot would likely just be a super blurred overexposed mess, but maybe some cool effects you could do with that. It makes some pretty cool bokeh so i'll prolly mess around with that.
The body cap that comes with the camera is a little finnicky to get on for me, idk if anyone else would have this issue but I have to line up the dot and then put on the bottom of the cap first. The lens mount is a bit looser than what you would find on an actual Canon camera but I don't take issue with that.
Another thing is you can't start a second exposure without cocking the viewfinder lever again. So if you wanna try shooting star trails keep in mind every 16 minutes you'll have to reopen the viewfinder and hit the shutter button again. I'm sure it's doable but just keep that in mind.
My SL660 has this issue where it'll occasionally just not open the shutter when I press the release button to take a shot. It doesn't bother me and noone else seems to have this issue but I thought I'd just post that here
Overall this is totally the best instant camera you can buy right now, outside of literally using a large/medium format camera with an instant back. People often compare MiNT cameras to NONS as a sort of high end competitor, but honestly they don't even compare in quality. NONS uses high quality materials like aluminum and glass, wood handgrips. Mint uses cheap plastic and their craftsmanship is honestly a bit dubious. I've rarely heard of a mint camera arriving with no glitches or quality control issues at all. No one can compete with NONS right now and it's not even close. if you're looking for the absolute best brand new instant film camera available on the market, this is it. You've reached your final destination.
NONS SL660 Instant Camera - Interchangeable Lens EF Mount SLR Analogue Instant Camera (PK-EF Adapter)
3.7 | 9 ratings
Price: 15
Last update: 07-28-2024
About this item
| Brand | NONS |
| Focal Length Description | 35 millimeters, 50.0 millimeters |
| Lens Type | Standard |
| Compatible Mountings | Pentax K, Nikon F |
| Camera Lens Description | 35 mm |
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NONS SL660 Instant Camera - Interchangeable Lens EF Mount SLR Analogue Instant Camera (PK-EF Adapter)
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Top reviews from the United States
Seth S.
++ Camera
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2023
Seth S.
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2023
The quality of your photos from the SL660 is pretty much dependent on what lens you shoot. The lens I've been shooting is the Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 (EF). This lens is not really optimal for the SL660. You can see in that third photo that stopped up, there's huge vignetting in like a airplane window shape. Pretty cool actually IMO but not super practical for more general purpose shoots. Stopped down anywhere lower than f/2.8 will lose most all sharpness. If you're using either of the NONS kit lenses you can buy with the camera, you'll get pretty darn good results once you get past the (steeeep) learning curve.
The SL660 is fully manual, the shutter speed doesn't go super fast, if you want to shoot at low apertures outdoors you'll need to use an ND filter (prolly an ND2). One thing I haven't seen anyone else mention is the minimum and maximum values that the light meter will recommend. The lowest value is f/1.0, the highest is f/99. You don't have to use the camera's on board light meter of course, but it's handy and I've found it to be pretty accurate. It's a good idea to shoot it like slide film and under certain circumstances you'll want to either under or overexpose by 1-2 stops. Instax has VERY poor dynamic range so there's a bit of finagling you gotta do to get decent latitude.
A lot of people seem to take issue with the viewfinder having weird coverage, I personally love the viewfinder. I don't usually need to know exactly where the edge of frame is for my compositions most of the time so I don't mind. It's fairly bright (also depends on the lens), and focusing is pretty easy. Obviously it's an SLR so that's SUPER nice to have and I don't really have any issues with the viewfinder.
Now one of the biggest reasons I bought this camera is that because it shoots any kind of lens, you can drop the aperature and get so much light back for free, I though potentially it could be used for night street photography handheld. And honestly, yeah it can. It's not always the best experience, but that second shot really blew me away. Initially I was critical of NONS for using an EF mount, because you're shooting a medium format camera, on what's technically a medium format film, yet we're only using full frame lenses. If we shot on a medium format mount, we likely wouldn't need that optical extender inside the mount, and get 2 free stops of light back. I will stand by the logic of that idea BUT I understand why NONS went the route they did and honestly wouldn't change it myself. There are plenty of full frame fully manual EF mount lenses still being manufactured today, and you can't really say that about medium format lenses in general. I like that EF is adaptable, and for most people, if they have a lens on hand, it's most likely a 35mm lens which is pretty easy to use on the SL660.
There's a couple things most reviewer's don't mention that I was wondering before I bought so I thought i'd dump em here for anyone else who has oddly specific questions.
The optical element inside the SL660 looks like it's convex from a lot of the pictures you see online, I was worried that some lenses would interfere with that optical element and potentially scratch it, turns out it's actually concave so I wouldn't be worried there. It's also glass so yeah. If you look through the viewfinder without a lens attached, you'll just get a very blurry image, since it's a very wide opening, taking a shot would likely just be a super blurred overexposed mess, but maybe some cool effects you could do with that. It makes some pretty cool bokeh so i'll prolly mess around with that.
The body cap that comes with the camera is a little finnicky to get on for me, idk if anyone else would have this issue but I have to line up the dot and then put on the bottom of the cap first. The lens mount is a bit looser than what you would find on an actual Canon camera but I don't take issue with that.
Another thing is you can't start a second exposure without cocking the viewfinder lever again. So if you wanna try shooting star trails keep in mind every 16 minutes you'll have to reopen the viewfinder and hit the shutter button again. I'm sure it's doable but just keep that in mind.
My SL660 has this issue where it'll occasionally just not open the shutter when I press the release button to take a shot. It doesn't bother me and noone else seems to have this issue but I thought I'd just post that here
Overall this is totally the best instant camera you can buy right now, outside of literally using a large/medium format camera with an instant back. People often compare MiNT cameras to NONS as a sort of high end competitor, but honestly they don't even compare in quality. NONS uses high quality materials like aluminum and glass, wood handgrips. Mint uses cheap plastic and their craftsmanship is honestly a bit dubious. I've rarely heard of a mint camera arriving with no glitches or quality control issues at all. No one can compete with NONS right now and it's not even close. if you're looking for the absolute best brand new instant film camera available on the market, this is it. You've reached your final destination.
Images in this review
artisvita
A Nice Instant Camera
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2023
Sean Gorman
Instant gratification
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2024Alex
Good camera but be aware of some limitations
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2024