"everyone has a Fuji now"

wt21

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I recently started working at much younger, hipper company than me, lol. Full of 20-somethings.

Listening to folks brainstorming about product, someone was talking about taking pictures, and someone else said, referring to their peers and younger "Everyone has a Fuji now" -- meaning instant cameras.

I never thought about that much, but that is brilliant on Fuji's part. For these folks growing up with Fuji, that is the (non-phone) camera brand for them.
 
I got my wife a Fuji Mini 90 Classic years ago, she takes it with her on all of our vacations and day trips. I also see lots of snaps of the Instax snaps on VSCO's photo stream. They are a popular part of modern culture just like the older Polaroid instant cameras. Instant photography always has a place, I think the rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated and just a result of an overshoot into fledgling digital tech early on in the advent of that new format.
 
I have literally never seen one in real life. And I see cool, young kids all the time....some of whom are carrying cameras with them (DSLRs, Sony a7's, film SLR's, medium format film cameras, occasionally an X100 and rarely a m43 camera).

Maybe it's a regional thing.
 
I just turned 48 and you guys are convincing me that I'm totally out of touch because I've never seen anybody using them 'in the wild' either. 😲

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this is an old story, and the graphs are old, but the sales numbers seem absolutely absurd to me.

 
I've noticed an uptick in Fuji instax and lomography instant around here too. The main ones I see are the Fuji minis but I've seen a few wides and a couple lomography instamats.

I use to think I was the only one that used them, but the younger demo is really taking to them more.

My daughter has an album full of images is looking to buy another one here soon.
 
I've noticed an uptick in Fuji instax and lomography instant around here too. The main ones I see are the Fuji minis but I've seen a few wides and a couple lomography instamats.

I use to think I was the only one that used them, but the younger demo is really taking to them more.

My daughter has an album full of images is looking to buy another one here soon.
That may be it. Photo albums having attraction all their own.
 
I've seen a Leica Sofort in the wild, not any Fujis to my knowledge. Maybe the Sofort concept has a similar business idea behind brand recognition.
 
I'm TOTALLY not in touch with these nuevo instant cameras, but a quick look doesn't turn up any instant cameras that communicate with Fuji digital cameras. There is a wireless instant printer The Fujifilm SP-2 that will communicate through an app to print files from your Fuji digital camera.
 
I'm TOTALLY not in touch with these nuevo instant cameras, but a quick look doesn't turn up any instant cameras that communicate with Fuji digital cameras. There is a wireless instant printer The Fujifilm SP-2 that will communicate through an app to print files from your Fuji digital camera.
It looks like there an "Instax Share" app for smartphones that allow you to print from your phone to Fuji and, from what I'm gathering, grab copies of the images off of the Fuji Instax. The Instax has a memory card in it and appears to be more of a mini digital camera with a printer rather than just a 'snap & print' device like the Polaroids.
 
There is one instax camera model - the sq10 - that uses a digital sensor and then prints the images you want, but apparently that makes it lose some of the charm of the instax experience, compared to the instax cameras that expose tue film to the light from the lens. Also it doesn't have wifi, so no printing from your phone. For that, it's gonna have to be the SP-1, 2 or 3.

Or one of the many, many Zink printers, which tend to have slightly to massively inferior image quality and terrible privacy settings (the Fuji SP printers aren't great on privacy either). For best quality prints and decent privacy, the Kodak Printer Mini 2 is a good option, but that comes with a full cartridge per 12 prints, that needs to be disposed of (creating more waste) and that's harder to find than the Instax or Zink papers (at least here in Holland). Other Kodak branded models, mare by other manufacturers, do use Zink and do have privacy issues.

All in all, no perfect products on the market just yet.
 
I've seen a Leica Sofort in the wild, not any Fujis to my knowledge. Maybe the Sofort concept has a similar business idea behind brand recognition.
The Sofort is the Fuji Instax Classic Neo 90, for all intends and purposes. It's just packaged up differently, and there is one major difference: The lens ring serves for zone focusing whereas you have to use the menu with the Neo 90. Technically and in terms of IQs, they're the same camera. You pay double for the red dot and an admittedly much more clever use of one single feature.

But it's indeed quite rare to see the Neo 90 in the wild - the Instax Mini 7/8/9 series are much more frequent, and they're actually okay cameras, considering how cheap they are. But apart from the novelty value of just snapping away, they're very limited tools (which can be intriguing). They have the same lens as the Neo 90, btw. - a dim two-lens affair with a 31mm equivalent at f/12.7, nothing to write home about. Surprisingly, the cheap cameras are fully manual - you have to set the aperture for solid results, and the flash always fires (you can switch it off on the Neo 90!). An interesting alternative to the cheapest Fuji cameras is the original Lomo'Instant - it's a more old-fashioned, but also more versatile camera. Results are ... adequate, at best. Softer than the Fujis, but quite dramatic, more often than not (due to a huge amount of vignetting - the Lomography signature). And you can use screw-in filters, including NDs for daylight shooting.

I own a couple of instant cameras because I find them very interesting creative tools - because of their limitations and idiosyncrasies. I'm fascinated by instant photography because essentially, you have to get it right, or you have to throw it away. Lomography offers a couple of very interesting cameras, but the Neo 90 is still your best bet for Instax Mini if you need reliability. The best images come from the Lomo'Instant Glass that sports a surprisingly sharp and true 21mm equivalent lens for exciting perspectives - but its metering and shutter are inferior to Fuji's offerings, so YMMV (I always carry a two-stop ND filter to be able to shoot in daylight). The other very interesting provider is MiNT - but their cameras are way more expensive. Yet the TL70 2.0 and still limited RF70 are top of the pack in terms of features and results (the TL70 TLR uses Instax Mini, the RF70 rangefinder uses Instax Wide).

What I don't get is image printing on instant film, I'm sorry to say. It's a hideously expensive way to get mediocre prints. It has its appeal, and it sure is a nice conversation starter as well as a way to show your appreciation for your subjects on the go by offering them one of those tiny images. But Canon's SELPHY printers are way better, not much bigger and offer a clearly cheaper print price. I don't have any experience with other Zink paper printers, though.

M.
 
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