The Instax Mini 40 for officially launched today, it will be available to buy on the 21st of April. On the same date Fuji will be releasing the newest instax Mini Film design, called ‘Contact Sheet’. It has a black border with orange writing that informs you of the ISO of the film and the image number, as well as having FujiFilm Instax written on the top on the frame. I have included screenshots of the FujiFilm publicity shots below.
My predications for this camera and the modes it may have were as far off as possible, but, I have linked them below for comedy reasons.
The Mini 40 is just the Mini 11 in a different outfit. They are operationally exactly the same and have basic functionality. I will buy the film, but, whether or not I buy the camera is yet to be seen. To be honest, I am a little disappointed in FujiFilm’s insistence in not innovating their very well selling Instax camera range. They had an opportunity to include some of the features that the Lomography Instant cameras have, or at least be inspired by them, but have yet again, decided against doing so.
Having spent the last few days talking to other Instax users about the launch of this camera, not one of us seems excited about it. NOT ONE. It’s a pity really that FujiFilm decided not to produce a camera with more features. Oh well, there will probably be another camera released by the end of this calendar year, let’s hope it has more features than the Mini 40. They can’t have a choice at this stage, can they? We have the SQ1, the most basic Instax Square camera from FujiFilm, and now we have both the Mini 11 and the Mini 40, which fill the same role in the smallest of Instax formats. I’m presuming that they will continue to ignore the Wide format, so there is no need for me to concern myself with a possibility of a new Wide camera.
It’s always good to have choices though, so that’s something.
Gallagher Photography 