Despite the prevalence of high-quality digital cameras, ranging from premium smartphone cameras to high-end mirrorless models, instant film is still quite popular. There's something magical about being able to snap a photo and hang it on the front of your fridge, or hand it off to a friend. There are plenty of instant cameras on the market, some with features aimed at photographers who crave extreme manual control. The Instax Mini 8 ($69.99) is a simple point-and-shoot model that doesn't offer bells and whistles. But it's a perfect choice for budget shoppers, and our Editors' Choice for entry-level models.

Design

The Mini 8 is a compact instant camera, measuring in at 4.7 by 4.6 by 2.7 inches (HWD) and weighing about 10.8 ounces. It features rounded edges, and is available in a variety of colors. Our review unit is finished in red—Raspberry according to Fuji—but you can also get it in Black, Blue, Grape (purple), Pink, White, and Yellow.

The fixed-focus 60mm lens matches the field of view of a moderate wide-angle 35mm (full-frame equivalent) prime. It captures everything from 2 feet (0.6-meter) to infinity in focus. It's a little tighter field of view than smartphone photographers are used to. If you crave a wider angle and want to stick to the Mini film format, you'll need to spend a bit more on the Lomo'Instant ($69.00 at Amazon) or Lomo'Instant Automat ($149.00 at Amazon) , both of which have 28mm-equivalent lenses—about the same field of view you get from a modern smartphone camera.

The Mini 8 is powered by two AA batteries, a big advantage over other instant cameras that use more obscure CR2 photo batteries. The battery compartment is on the right side. Film loads in the back—line up the yellow stripe on the film pack with the yellow mark in the film compartment to make sure it's oriented correctly. There's an analog film counter on the rear to let you know how many shots are left in the pack.

To turn it on, just press the button next to the lens in order to extend the barrel to the shooting position. You need to set exposure manually by turning the dial that surrounds the lens. The camera does tell you which setting to choose for the best exposure—a light will indicate whether to set it for indoor, cloudy, sunny, or very bright conditions. Additionally you can opt for a Hi-Key mode, which intentionally overexposes images.

The manual exposure setting isn't ideal for photographers used to fully automatic photography, but it only takes a second to set. But make sure you do—I forgot to for a couple of outdoor shots and ended up with the underexposed image above because of it. No matter the shooting situation, the flash fires. There's no way to suppress it. The camera also lacks a tripod socket, but since the flash always fires and there's no self-timer option, the chances to use a tripod are limited.

The Mini lends itself to capturing images in portrait orientation. The shutter button is placed so that your right index finger lands on it perfectly as you peer through the bright, albeit small, optical viewfinder. Turning the camera to shoot in landscape orientation requires that you hold the camera awkwardly. Moving the shutter button lower down on the body could have ameliorated the issue, but it would make the Mini 8 less comfortable to use in portrait orientation.

Selfies are a thing that many people enjoy. If you're a selfie shooter, you'll be disappointed with the Mini 8—it doesn't have a mirror to frame up shots, like you get with the Lomo instant cameras and the Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 ($120.00 at Amazon) . You also need to hold the camera about two feet from your face to get in focus—the Mini 70 focuses to 1 foot (0.3-meter) for selfies.

I took a selfie with my arm stretched as far as I could manage and ended up with an in-focus image. But I could see from the blurriness of my arm that moving my head forward would have netted softer results. So keep your head back and your arm stretched when turning the camera on yourself.

One other hindrance is the angle of view of the lens. It's pretty easy to frame yourself—just center the lens and shoot—but if you're trying to selfie with a friend, an instant camera with a wider angle lens and selfie mirror is a better choice. The Lomo'Instant costs nearly twice as much, but that's a small price to pay for the endless number of arm-length shots you can take of you and your bestie side by side.

Film Format

The Mini 8 works with Instax Mini film, available from Fujifilm and Leica. It's sold in packs of ten at a minimum, and if you buy it at that quantity expect to spend about $0.90 a picture. But you can buy in bulk to keep costs down—60 exposures sell for $39.95, about $0.66 an image.

Those prices are for the basic film. Fuji often offers special editions with borders that are something other than plain white, but they come at a premium. Likewise, if you want to shoot in black-and-white you can expect to spend a bit more. Instax Mini Monochrome ( at Amazon) film costs about a dollar an image at press time.

The Mini film has an image area that is 2.4 by 1.8 inches in size (HW), surrounded by a border that makes the print 3.4 by 2.1 inches overall. It's noticeably smaller than the Polaroid films of old (still available from Impossible for use in the I-1 ($79.00 at Amazon) camera), and about half the size as Fuji's Instax Wide format.

Personally, I prefer the larger Wide format, as images have more impact, but the larger film necessitates larger cameras. I understand why Mini is so popular, and the relatively svelte design of the Mini 8 is a better choice for occasional snapshots than the huge Lomography Lomo'Instant Wide ( at Amazon) or the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 ($92.00 at Amazon) . And let's not forget that people love being handed a physical image, regardless of its size.

Conclusions

If you want to bring some new life to your family snapshots, or are simply looking to dabble in instant film on a budget, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 is the way to go. It doesn't do as much as some more expensive models, but is readily available for about sixty bucks. That puts the Mini 8 in the impulse buy category (when compared with prices of most photographic equipment), and makes it a great gift—for yourself or someone else.

While I would have liked a camera aimed at an entry-level audience to offer fully automatic operation, it only takes a second to set the exposure, and the camera tells you what the ideal setting is. In all other regards, the Mini 8 offers a purely point-and-shoot experience. It's our pick as Editors' Choice for photographers in looking for a basic, no-frills instant camera. We recommend the $200 Lomo'Instant Wide for more serious shutterbugs who want to add instant film to their repertoire.

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