Fujifilm’s Instax Mini 99 looks awesome, but its price is out of touch

Fujifilm is back with a new Instax camera called the Mini 99. This small camera is packed with fun features, but its price is weirdly high considering its part of the company’s analog range and doesn’t include a digital screen like the Instax Mini Evo, which costs the same.

That being said, the Mini 99 does have a few unique tricks up its sleeve to help soften the blow of its high price, but you’ll need to decide if they’re worth it.

The most notable feature is an array of four LED lights inside the camera that can be used to tint the film as you take a picture. For instance, if you wanted to take a sepia photo, the camera will shine orange lights inside when you snap your pic to turn the film orange. If you want a purple filter the lights switch to purple. This also allows for a single light to be turned on to provide a light leak effect.

While the lighting effects are more for stylizing the image, there’s also an exposure control knob that will let you bump the brightness up or down depending on the ambient lighting in your space. This feature is a nice bonus and gives the Mini 99 a leg up on the other Analog Instax cameras. Some do have auto exposure, but having control over the brightness of your shots is undeniably useful.

Another new feature in the camera is a small ring that can tighten around the lens to create a subtle vignette around the image.

Following that are a few other modes that have been on other Instax cameras before, but not on every model. This includes double exposures, a bulb mode for long exposures when you have a tripod, and a sports mode for capturing action.

There’s also a macro option for shooting close-ups and a rather interesting mode called ‘indoor’ that helps white balance for lights, and that can also automatically brighten the image if it’s too dark.

All of this is pretty awesome to have in an Instax, but at the end of the day, it’s the same price as the Insta Mini Evo, which features a rear display and can act as a real digital camera. It also allows you to take multiple shots and then decide which ones you want to print later, saving a lot of film. Plus, with the Evo, you can send other photos over to the camera to print them.

Both of these features feel much more in line with the $250 price tag compared to the limited analog modes on the Instax Mini 99.

That said, for people looking for a simple Instax camera with some added depth, this will be hard to beat.