Fujifilm’s new Instax Mini 40 is a vintage-looking $ 100 toy

Fujifilm has announced the latest addition to the Instax Mini instant camera line, the Mini 40. Much like the Instax Mini 11, released last March, the Mini 40 is an entry-level instant camera with just two. settings and two buttons. But what sets this camera apart is its vintage camera look, with a faux leather plastic body and metallic-looking plastic rails. It’s a $ 100 toy camera that instantly creates printed memories – and of course, it’s a pleasure to play with.

Beyond the vintage camera look, the Mini 40 has the same mechanics as the $ 70 Mini 11. By pressing the big silver button under the lens compartment, the lens will pop out and turn the camera on. . Selfie mode is activated by pulling the outermost part of the lens about half an inch more. And when you’re ready to put it away, push the lens back into the camera to turn it off. The fully plastic camera body makes it very light and easy to take anywhere.

There are two shooting modes on the Instax Mini 40: normal and selfie. Selfie mode adjusts the focal length of the camera to allow subjects closer to the lens to be in focus. Beyond that, you have very little control. The flash will fire with each press of the shutter and a sheet of Instax Mini film will unfold with a mechanical hum. The results are unpredictable beyond knowing that the printed photo will be slightly soft with high contrast and be tied under the Polaroid icon. The magic comes when you place the print on a table, forget it, and remember a great memory at least a minute and a half later.

When using an Instax camera, I can’t help but notice how much plastic is used in each of the 10 photo film cartridges. Although there is a recycle logo on the cartridge it is in Japanese and I am unable to tell which plastic number it is made of. In the United States, many municipalities have specific plastic numbers that they can and cannot recycle, and without that number clearly labeled on these photo cartridges, I couldn’t tell if I would be able to recycle them here in Brooklyn. , New York. I contacted Fujifilm for more information and will update this article if I get it.

Playing both informs my creative style and relieves me of stress – which, as someone looking at cameras, is hard to always satisfy when using a camera. But the Mini 40, just like the Mini 11, has so few options, a very light feel, and sometimes results so unpredictable that I can sit back and have fun using it. Any further thought on photographic theory when using the Mini 40 is overkill and has rarely given me better results.

At $ 100, the Mini 40 is a bit more expensive than the nearly identical Mini 11. Besides its new vintage look, there would be no reason to spend the extra $ 30. But if looking at the film photographer part is important, the design of the Mini 40 will stand out. Once Fujifilm addresses the amount of plastic used in each of the 10 film packs, I can truly have a hassle-free experience with this camera.

Photograph by Becca Farsace / The Verge