From our first-ever INSTAX mini 10 launched in 1998 to the latest teeny-tiny INSTAX Pal digital camera that turned the instant photo experience upside-down, we continue to pursue the advantages of both analogue and digital technology, maximising the benefits of each.
Today, we celebrate the first INSTAX launch in 2024 and the new addition to our INSTAX analogue product line-up, the INSTAX mini 99. With its classic and stylish matte black finish, this new analogue instant camera maintains the premium look and feel as the INSTAX mini 90 but also brings advanced features that no other analogue camera has seen before.
Be one-of-a-kind with light & colour
The INSTAX mini 99is a camera for those who are not afraid to experiment. What makes it truly one-of-a-kind is its built-in LED-light feature that enhances your prints with an authentic analogue feel. You can select different colours using the special Colour-Effect Dial. This includes Faded Green, Warm Tone, Light Blue, Soft Magenta, Sepia, and Light Leak. So, right when you take the photos, one of six different colour effects will be reflected in your prints, creating a unique shot every time.
You can also combine these colour effects with other modes, like Brightness Control. This feature offers five distinct levels of brightness: the Light (“L+”) setting indicates the brightest exposure, the “L”, “D”, and “N” settings offer the normal range of brightness, and the Dark (“D-”) setting represents the darkest available brightness level.
The new camera also comes with an exciting new Manual Vignette Switch. It allows you to easily add an artistic shaded frame around the image, manually controlling the vignette with an easy-to-use switch on the lens housing.
Shooting Modes
Each moment is unique, and this camera takes it into account. With a set of different shooting modes, you can choose the one that perfectly suits the occasion and take shots even in low-light conditions. For instance, Sports Mode increases the shutter speed, so you can grab the perfect shot in action. The Double Exposure Mode lets you combine two images into one, and the Bulb Mode increases the amount of light let in, creating a brightened effect on the print.
Apart from those, the INSTAX mini 99 offers Landscape, Standard, and Macro Focus modes, easily accessible by adjusting the lens dial. The Landscape mode works great for distant subjects, while the Macro mode is perfect for close-ups and selfies.
Self-timer & Flash Control
With the self-timer feature, you can capture perfect group photos without the need for extra hands to hold the camera, letting everybody be part of a frame. You can choose among the Auto Mode, Fill-in (the flash will always fire regardless of lighting), Red-eye Removal, or turn the flash off, depending on your lighting situation.
Grip & Tripod Mount
The INSTAX mini 99 comes with a precision-milled base grip and a tripod mount that also acts as a grip when attached to the camera. This ensures a comfortable and secure hold on the camera, reducing the chances of shaky shots or accidental drops, especially in the most active shooting situations.
New INSTAX mini film: PHOTO SLIDE
With the launch of the INSTAX mini 99, we are also releasing a new INSTAX mini film, PHOTO SLIDE, that offers a new print design to add to your collection. Inspired by the photo slide used in old slide projectors, it is based on a stylish ivory colour that makes an outstanding photo effect.
Try it out firsthand, experiment with light and colours, and let your small moments feel big… and one-of-a-kind!
Remember how you used to sit on a sofa with your grandma, looking through those old family polaroids, putting them on your knees, one by one. There was something that made her hands tenderly hold the picture a little bit longer. Something making her breath rhythm changed. It was not a photograph but a story, a raw moment of presence, a memory that could never be repeated. And then you got it in your hands, with this unexplainable feeling of touching a true treasure. It felt like magic, didn’t it?
And now look, that’s you holding the instant photo taken with your best friend in a crowded street last week. Both showered by rain, shining with joy, with a coffee in your hand and sincere laugh being the only sources of warmth that day. And now you’re fingering this feeling caught in a photo and smiling. And getting warmer.
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Working alongside Sentebale, the Lesotho Photo Project developed from an idea to bring photography to the vulnerable children of Lesotho, through the medium of workshops, lessons and classes ran by Getty Images photographer, Chris Jackson, using Fujifilm instax cameras and instant film.
“For the last eight years or so I’ve been regularly travelling out to the remote South African Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho to document the work of Sentabale, a Charity that was founded over 10 years ago by Prince Harry alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho.
“Sentebale simply means ‘forget me not’ in the the local Sesotho language. The charity focuses its work on the vulnerable children of what can be a harsh and unforgiving country – Lesotho has been ravaged by HIV/ AIDS, suffering from the second highest rate in the world. This has left an orphaned generation in desperate need of support, education and medicine.”
“Documenting numerous visits by Prince Harry over the years has been a real privilege. I’ve also spent time capturing the work of the charity, their partners and umbrella projects.
“Over the years I have grown to know the children and staff in Lesotho well and it made me keen to get involved in more depth. I’ve always noticed the positive effect that the process of taking a photo has on the children. It’s almost therapeutic, the universal language of the still image has always been a means by which I am able to break down boundaries and create and immediate connection with the children I am photographing. On previous visits I have also noticed in many of the orphanages the children love creating montages on the wall of their friends and staff.”
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
“As in many of the counties I’ve been to around the world, the kids love looking at the digital image on the back of the camera and the pleasure I get from taking it becomes a shared joy with many of the subjects I captured. It was to this end that I contacted Fuji who kindly gave me some brightly coloured Instax 8 cameras as well as a set of digital bridge cameras to take out to Lesotho with a view to giving the children an opportunity to get involved in photography sessions. I was sure that photography was a tool that would enable the children to, not only be creative, but strengthen many of the important messages Sentebale are keen to reinforce.”
The children took part in photography lessons, with their images printing and developing instantly on Fujifilm instax cameras. A large photography wall was created in the shape of the official Sentebale flower, using the children‘s instax prints and they were encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings through their images.
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
“Much of the money raised by Sentebale over the last few years has gone towards an incredible, multi-functional facility – The Mamohato Children’s Centre, designed to provide emotional, psychological and medical support to the children. Based on sacred land donated by the King outside the capital, Maseru, the centre is used to run week-long ‘Network Camps’ for vulnerable and HIV positive children. Education, health awareness and above all fun are key for the children who visit. It was here that I was lucky enough to be given permission to start running photography sessions for the children. With over 10 camps a year and up to 100 children in each camp it was a chance for many of this disadvantaged children of Lesotho to get involved in the magic of photography.”
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
“I headed out to Lesotho to begin the project armed with sacks of dressing up gear, a number of massively overweight bags containing the cameras and a huge amount of AA batteries! The thing that concerned me the most was getting the film to Africa safely and it took a lot of negotiating to get the packs of instant film around the numerous X-ray machines (which can affect it). One bag went AWOL in Dubai en-route and it was a huge sense of relief that I arrived at the Mamohato Centre 28 hours after leaving Heathrow jelagged, stressed but with all the cameras in one piece!”
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
“In Lesotho I was able to not only give training to the staff (who use digital cameras to document the weekly Mamohato Network Camps, images of which are used to create a slideshow for the children at the end of the week) but also to introduce the cameras to volunteers (who run the camps), explain how they worked and discuss concepts for sessions with the children.
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
“As we suspected the cameras were an instant hit with the children, many came into sessions very shy and reserved but left smiling and with a previously unseen level of confidence. Each group of children took part in an hour long ‘fun’ introductory session, creating a collage on the wall. Knowing that the children in Lesotho love to dance and sing I was keen to make the lessons quite physical and with a real sense of fun. I played music in each class and, along with the volunteers, we encouraged the children to ‘shake it’ ‘shake it’ with the instant photos, most of the sessions involved a real sense of fun as the kids danced round shaking their photos in time to the music. I know that the instant-film aficionados will tell me it’s not essential to develop the film in this way but it was a great way of making the lessons less static and the kids loved it! Every time my whistle blew the children would gather the images they had created to build a montage on the wall around a logo of the charity. Towards the end of the session the children dived into the dressing up box and created images of each other gear in everything from pink wigs to father Christmas hats – great fun!”
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
“In addition to this throughout the week the children created a ‘Mamohato Times’ newspaper using their photos and text they had written. This was a more cerebral activity that the introduction sessions and the instant cameras were perfect for this as they enabled the children to conceptualize and image, create it and immediately write about it. This idea developed from something the children had done previously. For me it was incredibly satisfying to see them using the cameras so creatively and thoughtfully to create something that reinforced many of the important messages they were being taught as well as remind them of many of the great friends they had made. At the end of a week-long camp the children were able to take away the images they had created, a lasting memory of the camp and something to show their family – invaluable.”
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Courtesy of Chris Jackson/Getty Images. All rights reserved
“After my initial visit to Lesotho to initiate and run the project I headed back a few weeks later for the official opening of the Mamohato Centre. This was to be a huge event, attended by various local dignitaries as well as the King and Queen of Lesotho and Prince Harry. It was a showcase for many of the activities that children would take part at in the centre including HIV awareness, sports games and yes, photography! I was able to explain the project to many of the visiting guests, the King and Queen as well as Prince Harry (who was totally on-board). Prince Harry is a keen photographer and immediately got stuck into the sessions taking a photo of the King and Queen – not the more formal royal portrait I have been used to but great fun!
“The legacy of this project has always been integral to me, seeing the positive effect it had on the children made it important to me that it wasn’t a flash in the pan. Getty Images and Fuji have been fantastically supportive of the whole venture with Fuji even funding the project with film for the next year. Beyond this we are exploring ways to keen the children snapping well into the future!”
Supporting both the Corporate Philosophy of Fujifilm to enhance the quality of life of people worldwide and the overall goals of the Sentebale charity, the project provided the children with a unique and special opportunity to express themselves through photography. The instant nature of the cameras empowered the children with a sense of creativity, and gave them the chance to see their photos instantly.
The Lesotho Photo Project was launched during the first camp held at the Sentebale‚ Mamahoto Children’s Centre (the flagship facility that supports all of Sentebale’s work with vulnerable children) in October 2015. The Centre has continued to run the project at camps throughout the winter, including a session at the official opening in November 2015. The children take part in photography lessons and use their instax prints to produce the Mamohato Times; a newspaper documenting their experiences at camp. This fantastic project provides a chance for the children to develop their creativity, communication and interpersonal skills, but most importantly have fun and express themselves in a unique and empowering way.
