Review on 📸 Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 Instant Film Camera (Brown): Capturing Memories in Style by Kantrel Tunstill

Most people I speak to find the Instax Mini to be a great party format, but otherwise falls short of the digital format. You're really missing out. The strengths of this camera really show in (1) the right composition and (2) the right lighting. If I stick to the following rules, it does an amazing job of capturing moods and sensations that few can capture with a DSLR, let alone a cellphone. The instant photo format also turns "involuntary” photo subjects into voluntary participants in the process. Many people might not like it when a street photographer raises their camera and takes a picture, but when an instant photo pops up, they get curious, even happy. If I try to use it for any photos other than those described below, it's bullshit. I'd rather get a smartphone (ugh), really. The camera's single-stop automatic exposure system offers much less exposure flexibility than is accustomed to in the age of digital photography. When you're making a movie, you need light, period. And Instax is pretty much a daylight balanced film, so you can get color shifts in any light but enough sunlight. Again, Digital does a pretty good job of auto "white balancing" so people aren't used to dealing with that aspect of the film. While the camera can brighten with two clicks, darken with one click, and turn off the flash, the most likely results when shooting in a large field or in scenes with a wide shadow-to-light range are washed-out highlights and blurry images. The composition is best for people when I'm 4 to 6 feet away and not trying to capture more than the top half of the model, or even better the top third. For exterior and interior work, any composition of interest should be something I could incorporate into a trailer, with at least 60% of the interesting elements removed from the end of the doorway in 60% of the room closest to me. Larger scenes with models or outdoors are lost due to the small frame size and relatively low movie detail. For indoor lighting, it's best if the subject is already well lit by the light from the window and the camera isn't pointed directly at the subject, but at an angle of at least 45 degrees so the flash illuminates the darker side. Flash shots of people captured indoors will typically show bluish skin, while indoor shots lit primarily by regular incandescent/LED lights will appear orange. Flash and lighting in two clicks, but the shutter slows down to the point where I have to account for quite a bit of motion blur. Working in low light really slows down the shutter speed inside us and the colors move in strange directions as a result. Instax film's color reproduction is more like color slide film than color printing film. That's strange considering how high the ISO is. For outdoor work, it's best to work after sunrise, before sunset, with no haze or cloud cover, or with very little haze, and in a scene with fairly even lighting. Not much shadow detail available. The flash isn't designed to fill up with daylight, so I always just turn it off; Otherwise, the closest object in the scene will often be overexposed. A bright subject that's brightly lit by direct sunlight will almost always be overexposed, so I use the One Click Dimming option for that. If I just stick to these rules, I get images of people lingering and absorbing. I'm glad I bought the camera and lately I've been putting it in my briefcase or taking it with me everywhere. I stumble across a few good scenes every week just in my daily life without even trying. i can't win