Fujifilm instax mini 8 instant film camera review
3.5
Good
Fujifilm Instax Mini 70
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Lomography Lomo"Instant
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3.5
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Fujifilm Instax Wide 300
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3.0
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Fujifilm Instax Mini Monochrome
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The fixed-focus 60mm lens matches the field of view of a moderate wide-angle 35mm (full-frame equivalent) prime. It captures everything from 2 feet (0.6-meter) to infinity in focus. It"s a little tighter field of view than điện thoại thông minh photographers are used to. If you crave a wider angle & want khổng lồ stick to the Mini film format, you"ll need khổng lồ spend a bit more on the Lomo"Instant ($69.99 at Amazon) or Lomo"Instant Automat ( at Amazon) , both of which have 28mm-equivalent lenses—about the same field of view you get from a modern điện thoại cảm ứng camera.
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The Mini 8 is powered by two AA batteries, a big advantage over other instant cameras that use more obscure CR2 photo batteries. The battery compartment is on the right side. Film loads in the back—line up the yellow stripe on the film pack with the yellow mark in the film compartment khổng lồ make sure it"s oriented correctly. There"s an analog film counter on the rear khổng lồ let you know how many shots are left in the pack.
To turn it on, just press the button next to the lens in order to extend the barrel to lớn the shooting position. You need lớn set exposure manually by turning the dial that surrounds the lens. The camera does tell you which setting khổng lồ choose for the best exposure—a light will indicate whether to lớn set it for indoor, cloudy, sunny, or very bright conditions. Additionally you can opt for a Hi-Key mode, which intentionally overexposes images.
The manual exposure setting isn"t ideal for photographers used lớn fully automatic photography, but it only takes a second khổng lồ set. But make sure you do—I forgot to for a couple of outdoor shots and ended up with the underexposed image above because of it. No matter the shooting situation, the flash fires. There"s no way to lớn suppress it. The camera also lacks a tripod socket, but since the flash always fires & there"s no self-timer option, the chances to lớn use a tripod are limited.
The Mini lends itself to lớn capturing images in portrait orientation. The shutter button is placed so that your right index finger lands on it perfectly as you peer through the bright, albeit small, optical viewfinder. Turning the camera lớn shoot in landscape orientation requires that you hold the camera awkwardly. Moving the shutter button lower down on the body toàn thân could have ameliorated the issue, but it would make the Mini 8 less comfortable lớn use in portrait orientation.
Selfies are a thing that many people enjoy. If you"re a selfie shooter, you"ll be disappointed with the Mini 8—it doesn"t have a mirror to frame up shots, like you get with the Lomo instant cameras and the Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 ($145.00 at Amazon) . You also need to lớn hold the camera about two feet from your face to get in focus—the Mini 70 focuses lớn 1 foot (0.3-meter) for selfies.
I took a selfie with my arm stretched as far as I could manage và ended up with an in-focus image. But I could see from the blurriness of my arm that moving my head forward would have netted softer results. So keep your head back & your arm stretched when turning the camera on yourself.
One other hindrance is the angle of view of the lens. It"s pretty easy to lớn frame yourself—just center the lens and shoot—but if you"re trying to selfie with a friend, an instant camera with a wider angle lens and selfie mirror is a better choice. The Lomo"Instant costs nearly twice as much, but that"s a small price to lớn pay for the endless number of arm-length shots you can take of you and your bestie side by side.
Film Format
The Mini 8 works with Instax Mini film, available from Fujifilm and Leica. It"s sold in packs of ten at a minimum, & if you buy it at that quantity expect to spend about $0.90 a picture. But you can buy in bulk to lớn keep costs down—60 exposures sell for $39.95, about $0.66 an image.
Those prices are for the basic film. Fuji often offers special editions with borders that are something other than plain white, but they come at a premium. Likewise, if you want lớn shoot in black-and-white you can expect to lớn spend a bit more. Instax Mini Monochrome ($13.99 at Amazon) film costs about a dollar an image at press time.
The Mini film has an image area that is 2.4 by 1.8 inches in kích cỡ (HW), surrounded by a border that makes the print 3.4 by 2.1 inches overall. It"s noticeably smaller than the Polaroid films of old (still available from Impossible for use in the I-1 ($224.69 at Amazon) camera), and about half the kích thước as Fuji"s Instax Wide format.
Personally, I prefer the larger Wide format, as images have more impact, but the larger film necessitates larger cameras. I understand why Mini is so popular, and the relatively svelte thiết kế of the Mini 8 is a better choice for occasional snapshots than the huge Lomography Lomo"Instant Wide ($199.00 at Amazon) or the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 ($91.29 at Amazon) . & let"s not forget that people love being handed a physical image, regardless of its size.
Conclusions
If you want khổng lồ bring some new life to your family snapshots, or are simply looking khổng lồ dabble in instant film on a budget, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 is the way to go. It doesn"t do as much as some more expensive models, but is readily available for about sixty bucks. That puts the Mini 8 in the impulse buy category (when compared with prices of most photographic equipment), and makes it a great gift—for yourself or someone else.
While I would have liked a camera aimed at an entry-level audience khổng lồ offer fully automatic operation, it only takes a second to set the exposure, and the camera tells you what the ideal setting is. In all other regards, the Mini 8 offers a purely point-and-shoot experience. It"s our pick as Editors" Choice for photographers in looking for a basic, no-frills instant camera. We recommend the $200 Lomo"Instant Wide for more serious shutterbugs who want to showroom instant film khổng lồ their repertoire.
