FUJI INSTAX MINI 8

Hi all!  I thought I'd share a bit about my new, fun camera with you - the adorable Fuji Instax Mini 8!  Sarah over at Fanfair was talking about working on her photography skills a few weeks back and she posted some photos of some really cute cameras.  I've kind of wanted an instant film camera for the past year or so, but after Sarah's post my interest seemed to really kick into high gear.

I searched online for the best deal and I ended up buying my new Instax Mini 8 from Costco online.  The price included the camera, 2 AA batteries, wrist strap, two packages of film (with 10 photos in each pack) AND the shipping, too!  I ordered my camera on a Sunday and it arrived on Wednesday afternoon - super fast shipping, which was great since I was pretty excited and couldn't wait for my Mini 8 to arrive. I decided to order the black version of the Mini 8 as black is a timeless colour that will never go out of style.  However, the Mini 8 also comes in white, pink, blue and yellow which are all super cute. Costco didn't have all the colours available, but I did notice that London Drugs has all the colours, if you are interested in a pink, blue or yellow Mini 8.

The Mini 8 is super easy to use - loading the film and batteries is really simple.  Once you have the film and batteries loaded then you can push a little button on the front of the camera and the lens pops out.  There is a little dial around the lens of the camera that shows the five brightness settings - indoor, cloudy, partly sunny, really sunny and hi-key.  A little LED light indicator lights up to show you the optimal setting to turn the dial to based on the light available.  This makes it nice and simple - just turn the dial to that setting and then take your photo, which comes out of the top of the camera. 

I went out to a community garden to take some test shots with the Mini 8.  Here is my first set of shots:

They were a little bit overexposed, but I kind of like the dreamy look of these photos.  The sky was cloudy that day, but the cloudy setting on the camera seemed to make the flash a bit too bright.  I turned the flash down a bit (by turning the dial to the sunny setting, so the flash wasn't as bright) and tried again.  Here is the second set of shots I took:

This seemed to work better, and the images were quite clear but still have a slightly dreamy look to them.  It was my first time walking through this community garden and it was so beautiful with all the wildflowers and poppies growing everywhere - I definitely have to go back again soon!

Now that I've had my Mini 8 for a week, and have given it a good test run, I think it's fantastic - A super fun camera to use!  You kind of never really know exactly what you are going to get when the photo develops and that just adds to the fun!  A test shot or two might be needed each time you shoot in different lighting, but I would say that when you do get the right amount of flash for the shot it turns out great.  I can see the Mini 8 being super fun at a party where you can take photos and give them to friends to keep as a momento of the evening.  The film isn't cheap (each photo costs about $1.00) so it's not a camera to really use all the time as it could really get expensive.  I will probably just save it for special occasions or events.  One of the improvements that I think could be made to the Mini 8 is to add the ability to turn off the flash completely.  That would be a nice option to have especially if you are shooting outdoors in really bright sunlight.  However, I think that perhaps putting a piece of opaque tape over the flash would help to turn the flash down to almost nothing.  Overall it's a really fun camera and I'm very satisfied with my purchase of  the Instax Mini 8.  ▲