Home » Fujifilm Instax Mini 11 Hands-On

Fujifilm Instax Mini 11 Hands-On

Written By Alyza Angeles
Published • July 25th, 2020
CamerasHands-on
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Anybody who loves instant photography is well familiar with the Fujifilm Instax Mini series. They’re colorful, compact, and fun and they don’t cost that much. In February, Fujifilm unveiled the latest Instax, the Instax Mini 11. It comes as the successor to the Mini 9. If you want to find out more about it, then read on.

From the get-go, the Instax Mini 11 looks really cute. It has some cosmetic refinements from its predecessor, the Mini 9. It now sports a ‘rounder, softer, modern, and compact look.’ It’s got a slimmer body and weighs much lighter than the Mini 9.

The front grip is now narrower, but it’s still comfortable to hold. It also comes with other 5 colors, including Blush Pink, Sky Blue, Charcoal Gray, Ice White, and Lilac Purple.

The power button can be found under the lens barrel. There’s no way to disable flash, no self-timer mode, and no tripod mount at the bottom.

Up top is where the instant film prints out.

On the rear, we get the flip-down door to load film packs, the viewfinder on the far right side, and the tiny tick counter to see your remaining shots.

The Mini 11 still uses the same 62 x 46mm Instax instant film and the same 60mm f12.7 lens used in the Instax Mini 9, but what makes it significantly different from the Mini 9 is its automatic exposure feature. This means that you no longer have to manually set the exposure. It automatically adjusts in the environment you’re in and optimizes the shutter speed and flash accordingly so you don’t get overexposed or underexposed shots.

We also get a new feature called the Selfie Mode. And as the name suggests, it’s for taking selfies. To use it, you simply just have to pull out the front edge of the lens until you can see the marking that says, “Selfie On”. It can take a close up picture of a subject 30cm to 50cm away. One concern I have with this feature is that when you try to push down the front edge of the lens, you end up pushing the entire lens altogether so you end up turning it off.

So the technique here is that you have to grip the lens barrel first to push down the selfie mode in order to not turn off the camera completely.

For image quality, indoors with not-so-good lighting (which it works best at), the Instax Mini 11 can take pretty good shots. It preserves a lot of details and the colors look natural. The photos take quite a while to develop, roughly a minute or two.

Outdoors, the highlights are kind of overblown and tend to kill the shadows but it can still take decent shots and give that dreamy and soft look once in a while if you’re into that kind of aesthetic.

And there you go. For anyone out there who’s wanting to get into instant photography, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 11 is a good start. It’s fun, compact, and affordable. Plus, you have all cute pastel colors to choose from. The Instax Mini 11 is priced at PHP4,299, and the Instax Mini Blue Marble Film is priced at PHP400.

Would you consider buying the Fujifilm Instax Mini 11? Let us know in the comments below!