instant gratification

Last fall after purchasing the Bad-Ass Bowler Camera Bag from Photojojo’s Store, I reviewed it here on Paperie Boutique. That review was such a success, Photojojo recently contacted me to see if I’d be interested in reviewing the Fuji Instax Mini Instant Camera. (Don’t miss the coupon code later in the post!)

I believe it took me all of 0.02 seconds to say, “YES! Please!”

It arrived earlier this week and I’ve had an absolute blast playing with it!

Assembly was very easy. Basically you take it out of the box, pop the batteries in, pop the film in, and go. (The Photojojo site has a great animated image that shows you how to load the film into the camera, so don’t miss it!) Honestly the most confusing part was that in my excitement I failed to RTFM and couldn’t figure out where the “power button” was. Turns out, there is no power button. You pull the lens out, “voilà!”, and you’re good to go…

The first day I took a few shots inside and then headed out back. I was amazed you could even see detail in the blades of grass. For an instant camera, it had very good clarity.

My boys were impressed with the “now you don’t see it, now you do” aspect of the photos. It was like handing over a little slice of my childhood to them.

For those of you want all the fine details, I’m more than happy to oblige. The Instax has a wide-angle Fujinon Lens (f=60mm) with a 1/60 second electronic shutter. (Its old-skool Polaroid Spectra counterpart has a 100mm lens.) The focus range is 0.6m to ∞.

It has a built-in auto flash in low light with auto-adjust and manual exposure compensation. There are individual exposure settings for indoor/dark, cloudy/shady, fine, and clear. You can check the LED exposure indicator and press the shutter.

The INSTAX Mini Film comes in cartridges and develops instantly. Each cartridge contains 10 prints – 2 cartridges, 20 prints per box. The prints are about the size of a credit card (2.13″ x 3.4″), making them very easy to take-and-go on a night out since they’ll fit right in a wallet photo holder. The image color is very vivid and bold, as you would expect with Fuji film. You can see here in the comparison shots I took first with my Polaroid Spectra Blitz, then with the Instax, just how much of a difference a few decades of technology can make.

The Polaroid images look so yellow, dull, and and washed out by comparison. Whereas the Fuji Instax images are bright and clear.

Don’t get me wrong – the images are not all tack-sharp. But for an instant camera, they are the best I’ve ever seen and this camera allows you so much control over the settings unlike its predecessors. Yet even with the color-pop the Instax provides, it still retains its roots and the images look remarkably ‘retro’.

Pros:
• very fast point-and-shoot capability
• can be shared by family members
• the instant-film is still in production
• unlike my Polaroid, the batteries are separate from the Fujfiilm Instax film (so if the 4 AA batteries die on the Instax, you don’t lose an entire pack of film in the process like you do with the Polaroid Spectra)

Cons:
• the price of the film (but you can’t really put a price on instant gratification now can you?)
• lack of a macro lens (DSLR shooting has really spoiled me all these years – this camera does not do very well in extreme close-ups)
• getting used to the lens-finder being on the right and the shutter-button located on the front (I’m a natural blonde and I have issues)
• figuring out how to convince my boys that it’s MOMMY’s camera

Now if you’re sitting there thinking, “This is all well and good but the expense doesn’t apply to my business…” Well think again! The photo below is the original reason I bought my Polaroid. You can do a lot of fun, creative shots mixing instant and digital / film. My clients absolutely adored this photo and had it blown up large for their wedding guestbook table.

So what are you waiting for? Not only is there an amazingly fun camera out there to be had, but the fact Photojojo is providing Paperie Boutique readers with a discount is just icing! So enter the code PAPERJOJO at checkout for 10% off the Instax cam until the end of March. You can’t beat that!

And with the money you save, you might even be able to justify getting one of the Bad-Ass Bowler Camera Bags for yourself to carry it in!

Thank you so much Photojojo! It’s been a long time since I actually had an excuse to “play” with a camera! And I have a feeling I’ll be making a lot more excuses in the future.

The first WPPI 2010 Las Vegas recap went live late last night. So don’t miss it! The post includes links to several incredible vendor discounts, only available for a limited time!

Camera mini-strap on the Instax courtesy of My Funky Camera who was featured on Paperie earlier this month.

If you’re interested in having your own business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured please contact me (my e-mail is in the sidebar and is robyn @ this domain – or you can leave a comment).