6 Instant Film Cameras For The Eager (And Cheap) Beginner
Film, film, film - my favorite vice.
Not nearly my only, but surely my favorite. I’m a sucker for things that destroy me - cigarettes, romantic relationships, skateboarding - and film surely does destroy my wallet. I’m in love with the endless analog capabilities and formats, my least favorite format being large 8x10, because who needs all that? Who are you showing off for? You think that because you have bellows and take two minutes to expose an image, you’re better than me? And for what? Some detail? No one’s putting you in the Gugenheim so change your name back from Ansel to Brad.
My favorite format, though, is instant. I’m often told that a hallmark of film photography is the joy of discovering what you shot way down the line after you process it, but fuck all that. I want it now. My (and likely your) attention span has been zapped by double-digit hours of Instagram reels per morning, and when I take a photo, I want that shit in my hand right now, so instant photography is my happy little cheat code to being a film guy and also rat brained.
But where does one begin in the wide world of instant film? There are really only two games in town: Fuji Instax and Polaroid. Between them, though, there are hundreds of models of instant camera to choose from, so if you’re looking to get into the game, here’s a handy list of models, sizes, prizes, and their quirks from a guy who goes through cameras like it’s nobodies business. We are leaving out the high-end bullshit, because you don’t want the best - you aren’t even ready for the second best - this is a beginner’s guide. Take it slow.
*It is important to note here and now that Fuji Instax Film is significantly cheaper than Polaroid (20x shots of Fuji is $20 USD, 8x shots of Polaroid is $19 USD) so keep that in mind when shopping.
The Fuji Instax Mini 12 ($70 USD)
Let’s start at the beginning: the cheapest and most reliable instant camera out there if you want to shoot today, and shoot a lot, is the Fuji Instax Mini 12. It comes in a variety of colors and in absolutely no variety of control. This baby is a twist-on/off point and shoot Instax Mini (meaning small and rectangular) camera with absolutely no frills whatsoever. Back when I worked at a camera store, the Fuji distributor told me that these are designed to be so easy, a baby could use it, and if a baby can do it, with some effort, you probably could too.
The Fuji Instax Mini 99 ($199 USD)
The Fuji Instax Mini 99 is if you want the convenience and reliability of the mini 12, but with some flavor, because you’re a photographer after all. The 99 is a technologically advanced, more electronically dominated Instax camera, with experimental features that include color hue controls (think sepia, red tone, etc) that cast your photos as you’d like. It features a a more advanced, accurate range focusing mechanism and what I would argue is a significantly sharper lens than the 12. The bummer thing about both the 12 and the 99 is the format size. I don’t know why Fuji goes with these vertical, rectangular dimensions, but the photo itself is quite small, and I don’t much care for it. Which brings us to…
The Fuji Instax Wide 400 ($150-$200 USD)
…the Fuji Instax Wide 400, a much larger format Instax film camera that is really just a big boy version of the 12 above. The Instax Wide format image is in the same ratio as the mini, only horizontal, and scaled up to be about the total image size of two Instax mini images. The Wide 400 is the premium of the wide formats, with a fairly-sharp 99mm/14 lens. The size of the image is great, but the camera itself is bulky and not very elegant, and the lack of control makes this camera a bit of a compromise between the control of the 99 (and other mini-format, manually-controlled cameras) and the desire for a big ole image. That said, if you wanna go big, it doesn’t get any bigger than this in the whole instant camera game (unless you’re going for 8x10, but that has already been discussed).
The Polaroid SX-70 ($100-$250 USD)
The Polaroid SX-70 is perhaps the most famous instant camera of all time. First coming onto the scene in the mid-70s, the SX-70’s sleek design, compact carry, heavy feature in the Wim Wenders cult classic, Alice in the Cities, and most importantly, revolutionary processing time, make this camera a classic. What makes the SX-70 a good camera, is the lens, and the manual focusing mechanism. For sharpness and precision, there isn’t any beating it in the entire instant film game. It is simply divine. These babies were manufactured in the mid-70s but are still coveted and used as daily-shooters by photographers the world round, and thus, they are fairly available to be retrieved, which is great. The down side? The are prone to break in strange and unfortunate ways, and thus require a lot of servicing, so what you get in precision/class, you pay for in film/attachments like flashes and macro lens covers/servicing. Still, though, the SX-70 is likely the single best camera Polaroid ever made, and is worth a try even if only for special occasions.
The Polaroid Go ($80-$200 USD)
Polaroid vanished for a moment during the revolution of digital photography, was perpetuated by Impossible Project, then eventually refurbished entirely, IP taking over the Polaroid name and not only perpetuating the old film emulsion formulas, but releasing new Polaroid brand cameras. The Polaroid Go is one of those new cameras, and boy if it isn’t the cutest little thing out there. Just look at it! It’s adorbs. This Polaroid camera has more features than I can list here - self timer, digital to film bluetooth capability, etc - which are all massive draws for someone looking to get tech, but with a mini-camera comes a mini-photo, which again, isn’t for me. I like my photos to be big enough to see, and with a two-element, medium-sharp lens, all the features in the world can’t make the photo and larger or wider, so it’s a compromise, I guess. Cool new product for the technologically advanced, tinier image.
The Polaroid OneStep / Impulse ($40-$150)
This is your grandfather’s instant camera. The OneStep and Impulse series Polaroid cameras are truly the work horses of the instant world. These fuckers never die, and I do call them fuckers, because I have blown more film packs through my Impulse than I am comfortable admitting to you. It’s a vacuum for money, but what I put in, I get back in the form of properly sized images illuminated with bursting flash. This is the party camera for the party person who can afford the film. Of everything on the list, if you’re just trying to get popping on something huge and fun, it’s this bulky boy right here.
