Fujifilm Instax Mini 99 Review: First Impressions

First Impressions

The Fujifilm Instax Mini 99 might just be the brand’s most precise instant camera yet, with two new dials for better control and more opportunities to get creative with your instant prints.

Introduction

The Fujifilm Instax Mini 99 is Fujifilm’s latest analogue Instax camera and successor to the Instax Mini 90.

Like the Mini 90, the Mini 99 boasts the same classic style and rear controls with the addition of two new game-changing dials.

I got the chance to try out the camera at Fujifilm’s launch event earlier this month. Here are my first impressions.

Design and features 

• The Instax Mini 99 has a classic design
• Includes a retractable 60mm lens
• Features two new dials to control colour and exposure

If you enjoy the look of classic film cameras, but want the instant format, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 99 will definitely appeal.

The camera has a similar retro appeal to the Instax Mini 12 but goes about it in a very different way. Here Fujifilm swaps out the vibrant colours and bubbly shape of the Mini 12 for a neutral black-and-white look with faux leather texture and vintage-inspired fonts.

The finished product fits in well with Fujifilm’s X-T5, X100VI and, of course, the Mini 99’s predecessor, the Mini 90.

On the front is a retractable 60mm lens and flash. Turn the camera around and you’ll find a real image optical viewfinder and a small LCD screen.

This is where you can find the different shooting modes, including Indoor, Sports, Double Exposure and Bulb, as well as flash controls, a self-timer mode and battery level. You can also glance at the display to see how many shots you have left.

There are two shutter buttons, which I found made it feel incredibly comfortable and natural to shoot portrait or landscape, depending on how you wish to frame a shot.

If you’re familiar with the Mini 90, the rear display and modes won’t be a surprise. The new colour and exposure dials, on the other hand, might be.

The Colour Effect dial allows you to toggle between six colour modes – Light Leak (LL), Sepia (SP), Soft Magenta (SM), Light Blue (LB), Warm Tone (WT), Faded Green (FG) and Normal (N). These colour effects are achieved using colour-changing LEDs located in four corners inside the camera.

I shot one photo with each colour mode at the launch event and found that each one offered its own individual charm, changing the look and feel of that image.

My personal favourites were Warm Tone, Sepia and Normal, though I think each mode has its occasion. I do think it’d take some time and experimentation to learn which colour effects look best in which settings, but the dial adds a new layer of creativity to the Instax Mini.

On top of this, there’s a new Brightness Control dial for cranking up or lowering the exposure.

The dial includes five brightness levels and can be combined with Colour Effects or the Double Exposure feature to offer more control over the final result.

Image quality and performance

• Uses Instax Mini film to deliver credit card-sized prints
• Photos print and develop relatively quickly
• Images are generally sharp and saturated with lots of contrast.

As you might guess from its name, the Instax Mini 99 makes use of Fujifilm’s Instax Mini film. These are 54x86mm credit card-sized prints with a 46x62mm image size perfect for slipping into a wallet or the back of a phone case.

I found that the images printed and developed relatively fast, but I’d want to time the camera properly in my full review.

When it comes to image quality, the results heavily depended on the settings and colour mode I used. I found the image I snapped with no colour effect (the football table) to be sharp with an aesthetically pleasing amount of contrast and deeply saturated colours.

There are some areas that are overexposed and therefore lose detail, such as the view from the window, but this is where the Brightness Control dial might come in handy if I were to take that shot again.

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