Features

Four Modern Instant Film Cameras You’ll Have Lots of Fun With

Chris Gampat
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11/16/2015
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Last Updated on 11/16/2015 by Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Instant film cameras 2015 (1 of 8)ISO 1001-125 sec at f - 4.0

Polaroid cameras (which ironically don’t shoot Polaroid film anymore) are super fun for all types of people. When a photo is taken and a person hears the rollers of the camera and sees the print come out, a bit of magic appears on the person’s face. It’s like being transported back into the past, and that photo is a one of a kind that can’t be duplicated. This is part of the fun of Instant film photography.

If you know someone that’s really interested in instant prints, here are four instant film cameras that everyone is bound to enjoy.

Fujifilm Instax Mini 90

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Instant film cameras 2015 (7 of 8)ISO 4001-125 sec at f - 3.5

As one of the most versatile cameras on this list, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 offers some options that higher end users will appreciate. No, not full manual control–but exposure compensation in both directions of the exposure scale and specific focusing ranges are possible with the Mini 90.

The Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 takes Fujifilm Instax Mini film. On the hands of a skilled user this camera can create pretty awesome photos once said user has studied up a bit on the instruction booklet.

Amazon: $136.79

Lomography Lomo’Instant Wide

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Instant film cameras 2015 (8 of 8)ISO 4001-125 sec at f - 3.5

As the other camera on this list being aimed specifically at the more advanced user, the Lomo’Instant Wide has a lot of options higher end photographers will really like. It has a very solid build quality to it, manual focusing on the lens (zone focusing), exposure compensation, flash selection, bulb mode, the ability to specifically shoot at 1/30th of a second, and a lens cap that also acts as a built in remove control for the camera. There is a PC Sync port that lets you use it with studio strobes.

Plus it shoots Instax wide film, which means much more real estate for you to shoot on than the Instax Mini prints. It’s arguably the most advanced modern instant film camera currently available.

Lomography: prices vary

Fujifilm Instax Mini 70

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Instant film cameras 2015 (5 of 8)ISO 4001-125 sec at f - 4.0

The Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 is a small, cute camera aimed at the hobbyist and the person that loves to take selfies. In fact, it even has a dedicated selfie mode. Other features include a high key lighting mode and a self timer. All the info is easily displayed on the back of the camera near the printer rolls.

This camera takes Instax Mini film.

Amazon: $124.75

Pro Tip: the Instax Mini 70 is the smallest of the bunch here and fits easily into a jacket pocket.
Pro Tip: the Instax Mini 70 is the smallest of the bunch here and fits easily into a jacket pocket.

Lomography Diana F+ with Instant back

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Instant film cameras 2015 (6 of 8)ISO 4001-125 sec at f - 4.0

One of the coolest ways to shoot Instant film is with a Diana F+ camera. Using the Instant film back, the camera can shoot and print out the images onto Instax film. Now, I wouldn’t say that this camera is totally manual, but it has the most manual exposures of any camera on this list. While it always shoots at the same shutter speed except in bulb mode, the camera has variable apertures. You can even shoot pinhole images!

Amazon: $129.95

camera fujifilm fujifilm instax fujifilm instax wide instant film
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.