Fujifilm instax mini 99 review

1. Verdict: the enthusiast's instax

Fujifilm instax mini 99

The only instax where the controls change the photograph, not just the color of the body.

Buy it for

Someone who adjusts exposure deliberately and will enjoy a vignette switch and bulb mode.

Skip it if

A gift for anyone casual. Every dial on it is the price difference, and on a casual user none of them get touched.

• •Exposure compensation from **-5/3EV to +1EV** — the fix for blown-out faces and dark backlit subjects that no other instax offers.
• •A 1.8 to 1/400 sec shutter plus **bulb mode to 10 seconds**, which makes night and light-painting shots possible.
• •Three-point manual focus switching with a dedicated macro setting.
• •A longer flash reach at **2.7 m** against the mini 12's 2.2 m, with fill-in, slow synchro and red-eye reduction.
• •Color-effect dial, manual vignette switch and double exposure — in-camera, not applied afterwards.

Running cost: instax mini works out at $0.85 a shot. See every format’s cost.

How it scores8.5/10 overall

• Creative control10
• Running cost9
• Ease of use6
• Build and feel9
• Print size5

Our editorial scoring, built from published specifications and reviews by outlets that test hardware — see how we pick. We have not handled these products, so these are not test results.

Engadget, which publishes hands-on reviews, calls it “offers far more control and features”.

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What the controls actually do

It is worth being specific, because "more features" is a claim and these are mechanisms. Three of them change photographs in ways a keen user will notice immediately.

Exposure compensation (-5/3EV to +1EV)

This is the most useful control on the camera. Instant film has no latitude and the simple instax models expose automatically with no override, so the two classic failures — a face blown white by flash at close range, and a subject rendered as a silhouette against a bright window — are unfixable on a mini 12. Here you can dial in up to one and two-thirds stops of negative compensation, or a stop of positive.

Bulb mode to 10 seconds

A 10-second exposure makes a genuinely different photograph possible: city lights, light painting with a torch, a lit window at dusk. No other instax in the simple range can hold the shutter open at all.

Three-point manual focus with macro

Rather than one fixed focus plus a close-up mode, the mini 99 has manual range switching from 0.3 m out past 3 m, plus a dedicated macro setting. For deliberate close-up work this is a real improvement; for a snapshot camera it is one more thing to get wrong.

Specifications

What it costs to own

Exactly the same as every other instax mini: about 85 cents a shot. The mini 99 costs more to buy and nothing extra to run, and its rechargeable battery removes the AA purchases entirely.

What it is good at

• •Rescuing difficult light. Exposure compensation plus a longer flash reach and slow synchro means awkward indoor photographs are recoverable rather than wasted at 85 cents each.
• •Being interesting. The color dial, vignette switch and double exposure are in-camera effects, which is a different and more involving thing than a filter applied later.
• •Build quality. A retractable lens, a rechargeable battery and a more substantial body than any other mini.
• •Not costing more to run. It is the same film. All the capability is a one-off purchase.

Where it falls short

• •It is a bad gift for a casual user, and that is the main caution on this page. The entire price premium is dials, and on someone who shoots their phone in auto, every one of them stays where it left the factory.
• •No self-timer. On the most expensive camera in the mini line, this is a genuine omission — the mini 13 has one and costs far less.
• •The rechargeable battery is a wear item. An NP-70S will eventually stop holding charge, and unlike the AA models that is the end of the camera's useful life rather than a trip to the shop.
• •The print is still 2.4 x 1.8 inches. All this control produces the same small photograph. If someone wants a better photograph rather than more control over it, the answer is a bigger format.
• •You still cannot see the shot first. For a user who wants to stop wasting film, the mini Evo is a more direct solution than exposure compensation.

What published reviews say

Engadget lists the mini 99 as an honorable mention in its instant camera guide and notes that it "offers far more control and features" than the simpler models, singling out its colored LEDs for creative effects.

Alternatives

• •[instax mini Evo](/instant-cameras/instax-mini-evo-review) — a different answer to the same wish. Instead of controlling the exposure, you see the result and decide whether to print. For most people this is the better camera at a similar price.
• •[instax mini 12](/instant-cameras/instax-mini-12-review) — the same photographs for roughly half the money, if the controls will not be used.
• •[Polaroid Now Generation 3](/instant-cameras/polaroid-now-gen-3-review) — real autofocus and a much bigger print, at $2.37 a shot rather than 85 cents.
• •[instax SQUARE SQ40](/instant-cameras/instax-square-sq40-review) — if what the person actually wants is a better-looking photograph rather than more control.

Who should buy it

Buy the mini 99 for someone who already takes photographs on purpose. If they adjust the exposure slider on their phone, own a camera with a mode dial, or have ever complained that an instant photograph came out too bright, this is the instax for them and the only one that answers the complaint.

For anyone else — a gift for someone undecided, a first instant camera, a child, a party camera — the mini 12 or mini 13 is the better purchase and roughly half the price.