Instant Gratification - the Instax Mini and Instax 210!

I've been really digging instant photos lately, shooting Polaroids (type 600, not that ridiculous Impossible Project stuff) and Instax Mini pack film willy nilly. And so after a bit of humming and hawing, I broke down and bought the Fuji Instax 210 Camera. I've lost track of exactly how many cameras I own, but I think this is number 26 or 27. I'm about 10 cameras over my hypocrisy limit for criticizing Anita's shoe collection.

A note to anyone actually considering buying this camera and film in Canada, The Camera Store in Calgary carries the camera for a hair under a hundred bucks, and then Black's is surprisingly the cheapest source of pack film at 25 bucks for a twin pack. That works out to about $1.25/ shot, which is only slightly more expensive than shooting medium format roll film and having it developed at a lab (process only, no prints). Having done that math, I now feel more at ease about shooting this widely available Instax 210 film with wanton disregard. Instant film is Carpe Diem-ing gratification... and the images have this visual aesthetic that digital cameras will never achieve, so you can take your 'that's obsolete technology' argument and shove it.

The initial results I've gotten so far are typical of integral film cameras - slightly soft, sort of muted colours, and just plain AWESOME. Top two shots are from the Instax 210 Wide, bottom two are from the Diana F+ with a Instax Mini back.