Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Review

Invested in one of these babies during my one week trip in HK back in February. The Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 is the latest of the mini series and as you can probably tell by the name, it's an instant camera! I've always wanted a polaroid camera but was always put off by the price of the film needed for it (1 pack only has 10 shots!), the camera itself is relatively inexpensive - around £55-£60 but the film can be quite pricey, especially in this country. Managed to pick up 2 packs of film in HK for a fraction of the price but of course, purchasing from ebay from overseas is going to be cheaper than buying from independent retailers in the UK but at the same time pricier than buying in HK.

In terms of the overall structure and feel of the camera, it's a really ergonomically friendly camera. Easy to hold, the camera is shaped perfectly for any size hand, it has a really smooth and matte feel to the body and is actually relatively light weight despite its looks. It doesn't feel awkward to hold when taking a selfie either, you can keep a really firm grip on it and the button is very conveniently placed for whether you're taking a picture of objects or a selfie from the front. 

This camera boasts the ability to automatically determine the best brightness level to take a picture by turning the lens to the corresponding lamp built into the camera:

I quite like the idea of this because usually, I associate polaroids as being quite vintage in nature, so features like auto-brightness detection is quite hard to come across. The only drawback is that you have to turn it yourself and hold it in place, if you let go, the lens kinda swings back into the home position... So this means it would be really fiddly for anyone to take a selfie using this feature. 

I bought this camera mainly to take selfies with friends so the ease of this camera for that purpose is quite important to me. Seeing all these extra accessories around in HK that you can buy for the camera, I stumbled across this selfie mirror as the Instax Mini 8 doesn't come with a built in selfie mirror like the Instax Mini 25 does. 

I actually find this mirror quite misleading, if I follow it and take pictures with someone at arm level, the image ends up positioning us too low down so there's a lot of space above us. So to use it properly, I tend to have to position my arm a bit higher than nose level and a bit angled down (selfie experiences using a digi cam) to take a relatively okay selfie. I guess using this takes a bit of practice but the nice thing about this lens is that it shoots close up, so images don't end up being blurry compared to if you were to take a close up shot at mid range without a close up lens. I guess a better way to use this lens when you're taking selfies with friends would be to look at your reflection in the close up lens rather than the mirror. The mirror seems to work fine when taking a lone selfie though, it's accurate enough to do that. 

So overall, the Instax Mini 8 is a decent polaroid camera that is in a decent price range and is pretty much a perfect first polaroid camera for anyone looking or thinking to purchase one. A main drawback is that there's no selfie mirror so people that are inexperienced in taking selfies can find this annoying, especially when you only have 10 shots in 1 pack of film. Though, you can fix this by buying the attachment that is sold separately - although again, this takes some practice to get used to. Another drawback is the hi-key mode (auto brightness detection), the fiddly lens setting that you have to hold in place cannot really be used with selfies unless you have spider leg-like fingers. So far, I'm really having fun with this camera, taking it out on special occasions and starting a polaroid collage on the side of my desk. I just wish the film wasn't so expensive to buy or I really would use this camera more often. 

Compared to the Instax Mini 25, I actually think the 25 is better than the 8 just because it has an in-built selfie camera, close up lens and light intensity control settings and also, I prefer the overall look of the 25 as well. Of course, having all these, the 25 is more expensive than the 8 but a lot of people say that the price difference is not sufficient for many to choose the 25 over the 8. But on the bright side, the batteries required for the Mini 25 (CR2 battery) is harder to find than for the Mini 8 (2 x AA batteries). Both are great polaroids and the features that the 8 lack can be substituted by buying the separate lens/selfie mirror and using the hi-key mode!