Fujifilm has announced its latest instant camera, the Instax Mini 9. Looking set to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors and be a hit at parties, festivals and weddings, the new instant shooter will boast features including a selfie mirror and a lens attachment for shooting close-up photos. It will also come in a new range of colors.
While it looks like we'll be waiting a little bit longer to see the new Instax Square format which was teased at Photokina, Fujifilm is continuing to release devices using its popular Instax Mini film, which gives rectangular credit card sized photos. This means the Mini 9 will have the same film choices as its predecessors, including a recently-released monochrome offering.
However, colors are important to a lot of Instax buyers, not just when it comes to selecting film, but also when choosing their camera. As such, the Instax Mini 9 will be available in five colors; Flamingo Pink, Ice Blue, Lime Green, Cobalt Blue and Smoky White. It measures 116 x 118 x 68 mm (4.6 x 4.6 x 2.7 inch) and weighs 307 g (11 oz) before adding batteries and film.
The Mini 9 uses a 60-mm lens with a maximum aperture of F12.7 which gives the equivalent of a 34-mm lens on a full-frame camera, and focuses from 60 cm (24 in). However, it will also come with a new close-up lens attachment which can be clipped onto the lens and lets you focus on subjects from 35 to 50 cm (14 - 20 in) away. If you're after a wider-angle instant camera, you might want to check out the Lomography Lomo'Instant Automat Glass Magellan we recently tried.
Another addition to the cutely-styled camera is a little mirror on the front, so you know where you are in your selfies. This mirror is similar to that on the Instax Mini 70 (and early cameraphones) so not as good as a flip-up monitor on a digital camera, but better than nothing, especially when every click costs money in terms of used film.
The upcoming camera promises to be as simple-to-use as its predecessor with no ISO to set, and a constant shutter speed of 1/60 second. This means users only have to turn it on, select aperture using an icon-based brightness dial (Indoors F12.7, Cloudy F16, Sun and cloud F22, and Sunny F32) and then hit the shutter button to get an instant photo.
The Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 is due to be available in May priced at US$70.
You can check out a promo video for the Instax Mini 9 below, which also shows the close-up lens attachment.
Product page: Fujifilm Instax Mini 9