The new Instax from Fujifilm Mini 99 is an Instax camera aimed at those who love manual controls and creative effects. It’s not the sharpest Instax I’ve tested…what remains of the Mini Evo– but it is perhaps the most analog and the most efficient.
The $200 price tag is well above entry-level Instax cameras, but here you get exposure and shutter control, sample color effects, and even the ability to simulate photo leaks. light, like the ones you get with these. thrift store cameras collect dust on your shelf.
Manual feed
With the exception of colorful and bubbly entry-level cameras, Fujifilm’s Instax design generally tends toward a retro camera vibe, which is true for the Mini 99. The 99 is all black instead of black. he silver and black found in the Mini 90, but otherwise bears more than a passing resemblance to the older model. Fujifilm hasn’t officially stated that the 99 will replace the 90, but they feel close enough that I’ll be surprised if the Mini 90 continues for long.
Photography: Scott Gilbertson
The lens of the Mini 99 is the same as the Mini 90. It is a 60mm plastic lens. This is about the same field of view as a 35mm lens in 35mm format (or if you prefer, between 1x and 2x on your iPhone). The shutter is fixed at f/12.7, which means you’ll rely on the flash for all but bright, sunny outdoor photos. That said, unlike many other Instax models, with the Mini 99 you can turn off the flash for well-lit photos.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the Mini 99, and something new for the Instax line, are the manual focus options. The Mini 99 doesn’t have true manual focus where you turn a dial on the lens to achieve precise focus. Instead, there are three focus zones: close-up (0.3 to 0.6 meters), mid-range (0.6 to 3 meters), and infinity (3 meters to infinity). For those unfamiliar with metric, this equates to 1 to 2 feet, 2 to 10 feet, and 10 feet to infinity. While it’s not as precise as a true manual focus camera, it offers more control than you usually get with Instax.
I found the manual focus a bit inconsistent, or rather, the results were less spectacular than I expected. Keep in mind that the aperture is f/12.7, which means the plane of focus will be quite wide, even with the focus area controls. The Mini 99 is capable of bokeh (the name for blurred areas in a photo), but only in very specific situations like a portrait, and even then you have to use the closest focus, which means that your subject’s face will mostly fill the frame anyway. That said, being able to play with the focus is a step up from most Instax cameras, where the focus is fixed, and the Mini 99’s close focus distance of 1 foot is ideal for macro style shots. Unlike some Instax cameras, there is parallax correction in the viewfinder so that what you see in the frame is very close to what you get.
