Despite living in a world where digital cameras are king, there's still a demand for the tactile feel that a physical picture delivers. It's one of the reasons that instant film has survived the death of Polaroid, both through the efforts of the Impossible Project and the continued production of Fujifilm's Instax line. The Instax Mini 70 ($139.95) is the company's latest effort, and it's got some features that will appeal to Millennials, including a front mirror for framing selfies. Serious shutterbugs, however, will be better served by the Lomography Lomo'Instant, which uses the same film but features a wide-angle lens, double exposure support, and some manual control options.

Design
The Mini 70 is a cute camera. It's available in white, blue, or yellow and is fairly compact. It measures 4.5 by 3.9 by 2.1 inches (HWD) and weighs about 9.9 ounces without film. Two CR2 batteries provide power—a set is included in the box. This battery type is common in older film cameras and accessories, but it's not as readily available as AA and AAA cells—for a product aimed at mass market consumers, either would have been a more sensible power choice.

Operation is almost fully automatic, so controls are minimal. There's a small monochrome information LCD on the rear that shows the number of shots remaining in the pack. (Each film pack includes 10 exposures.) To its right is the power button, and to its left are the Selfie, Self-Timer, and Mode buttons. Selfie sets the lens to a close focus distance, the Self-Timer can be set for 2 or 10 seconds, and the Mode button changes toggles through different settings.

When in its default mode, the Mini 70 only shows the film count on the LCD. But cycling through allows you to set the focus mode to landscape or macro, force the flash to fire, or enable Hi-key shooting, which brightens photos. Hi-key is best left to indoor shots—I found that my outdoor photos were a little overexposed to begin with, even when shooting on a very gray November day.

A fixed optical viewfinder is your window to the world. I found framing to be pretty accurate at moderate shooting distances, but macro photography can be hit or miss due to the parallax effect. If you're holding the camera in portrait orientation, the shutter button is easily accessible, as long as you're right-handed. When shooting in landscape orientation it's a different story. I found myself awkwardly cradling the camera at the top in order to not block the viewfinder or lens. A front shutter button can work on a camera that shoots in a square format, but here it's awkward.

Lens and Image Quality
The 60mm f/12.7 lens covers a field of view that's roughly equivalent to a 35mm lens on a full-frame camera. That's a pretty useful field of view—there's a reason why it's used on Fuji's fixed-lens X100T ($889.95 at Amazon) . But it's a little tight for selfies. I was able to frame a shot of my head and shoulders in portrait orientation, and my big noggin dominated the frame. A wider angle, like the 27mm (full-frame equivalent) lens on the Lomo'Instant, is better for selfies. It lets you incorporate a bit more into the frame, and maybe even squeeze a friend in there too. The Lomo camera also features a selfie mirror.

It's impossible to discuss image quality without addressing the Instax Mini film format. The pictures are small—about 1.8 by 2.4 inches. And each of those small images costs about $0.75, assuming you buy two packs of film at a time. Cameras that use the InstaxWide format, like the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 ($92.08 at Amazon) and the Lomo'Instant Wide ($199), capture photos that are 3.9 by 2.4 inches and run just $0.80 if you buy in bulk.

Film for old Polaroid 600 and SX70 cameras, as well as the Instant Lab Universal ($195.98 at Amazon) , is available from Impossible—the format is a bit larger than Instax Wide, but current color film doesn't match the Fuji stock in terms of image fidelity. Black-and-white film is available, but shows some color shift to sepia over time, and Impossible film is very expensive at about $3 per shot. I'd love to see Fujifilm add a black-and-white option to the Instax line, but as it stands you can only get color film, with your choice of plain white or multi-colored borders.

It's tough to make out details in the small Mini images, but when the camera nails exposure, the colors are excellent and shots have a glossy finish. Overexposure is an issue when shooting in daylight, but I found that indoor shots with the flash were spot-on—even selfies, which can be easily washed out if the flash fires with too much power. Moving up to the Instax Mini 90 ($179.95) adds the ability to make a shot lighter or darker via basic exposure compensation, which would have been welcome here.

Conclusion
The Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 isn't the least expensive instant camera that the company makes—you can get the Mini 8 for around $70. The Mini 8 is a very basic camera that doesn't focus close enough for selfies, but it's a solid choice for anyone who is happy shooting instant film with completely automatic settings. The Mini 70 definitely gives you more versatility, but for the money I prefer the Lomo'Instant. It's about the same price, has a wider angle lens, and offers more shooting controls and multiple exposure capability—a big plus for artistically minded photographers. If you're really serious about instant film, though, you'll likely be drawn to the larger image size offered by Instax Wide format cameras like the Instax Wide 300 and the Lomo'Instant Wide.

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