No I haven’t gone mad, or perhaps I have? If I have, would I know? Either way I just had a birthday, and there was a get together! I decided it was a good opportunity to have a play with a Fuji Mini Instax, specifically the Mini 12 in Lilac. Nothing better to load in it than a pack of “Sprinkles”. Perhaps I should explain that part of the fun of Mini Instax is that the film has many different borders to “collect” as the blurb goes!
It’s a simple affair. Pop the cassette in the back, load a couple of AA batteries, switch to the “on” position and press the button. Photo taken, it pops out the top of the camera, and you can enjoy the fun of watching it develop in front of your eyes! Although it’s better to leave them face down for a while to develop in the dark, you’ll get better, deeper colours! It’s actually a “bellows” camera, so that when you twist the front to the on position it expands – inside bellows are in action. The film it’s self is the same as Polaroid, although I assume different enough not to infringe patents? Readers as old as me may remember that Kodak tried instant photography once. Infringed Polaroids patent and got their fingers burnt. That’s another story!
The Mini Instax is designed for making credit card sized portraits like mine to the left. I used the film mainly on that, but I won’t share images of family members here without their permission – especially the young ‘uns! They are exactly the same size as my credit card! The actual image area is 62x46mm almost exactly the same as a 645 negative! The film is clearly marked as being 800asa, but as there are no controls at all, that’s essentially meaningless! The main point is that they are a bit of fun, especially at parties. Cheers!
A while back I tried a Polaroid – you can read about that here.
S.H.O.U.T. 