Take a trip down Polaroid lane with Fujifilm's Instax Mini 8

A little expensive but then you get to relive an era of photography

Fujifilm's Instax Mini 8 is an affordable point-and-shoot camera with a twist. In the age of digital cameras, the Mini 8 goes retro and takes instant photos that develop like a Polaroid picture.

The camera is easy to use and has a charming design that will appeal to all ages. It is available in five colours and has a matte plastic finish. Upon first glance, one can mistake it for a toy, thanks to its big lens and buttons. Although it looks chunky, the camera weighs a mere 307g.

The Mini 8 has a button in the front that turns on the camera and pulls out the collapsible lens. The lens is surrounded by an adjustment dial for different exposure levels. The flash and viewfinder are placed together along with the trigger that lays on the hand grip. At the back are two compartments for the film and AA batteries.

It comes with five exposure levels - indoors, cloudy, partly sunny, partly cloudy and sunny. There is also a "High Key" mode, with which photos are softer but extremely bright. The camera does not have auto or manual focus and the shooting range is limited. So, for a good photo, one needs to be closer to the subject. The camera's flash is always on and cannot be turned off.

One can shoot a picture with the trigger and out comes the photo like a Polaroid from the top of the camera. The Polaroid picture and the process of developing is the unique selling point for this camera. It takes you back in time when Polaroid cameras were all the rage. The photos have a white border that can be used to write messages on.

The photos take 10-20 seconds to process and can give brilliant results. However, being a camera with a limited shooting range, it takes time to get a hang of it. One needs to take several pictures to get the desired shot, especially since it doesn't have auto focus. It is fairly difficult to gauge which exposure is better or how far the subject can be.

This leads us to the biggest drawback of the camera. The Mini 8 works only with an Instax Mini Glossy Film that needs to be bought separately; it comes in packs of 10 and 20 shots, priced at Rs 519 and Rs 877 respectively. And, as put by our in-house photography connoisseur, "They are very expensive." This means one has to be very careful so as to not waste shots. So, a newbie might burn through the 10 or 20 shots quickly and not be able to process photos with the desired results.

Therefore, even though the camera is great to use and gives you fun Polaroid pictures, it is only suitable for those who are ready to invest in the expensive films frequently.

The Instax Mini 8 is available for Rs 6,441 on Fujifilm's online store.