The Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Camera "is a basic point and shoot camera that takes instant photos and develops them like an old school Polaroid camera. The analogue camera looks like a toy and and is guaranteed to have serious hipster appeal." via.

My love for analog photography can be rooted last December when I finally acquired my very own Fujifilm instax mini 8! I'm still in the process of learning but I just love film photography so much and I've been obsessed with instax ever since I saw a polaroid land camera in the movie, Warm Bodies. I actually like to own a vintage polaroid land camera but right now, owning one would be very expensive and I can't afford it because my current status is an unemployed fresh graduate of a BS Interior Design degree (HAHA). So anyway, I thought using a fujifilm instax mini 8 would be easy but I thought wrong! I already wasted a lot of films and I'm not liking that so here is a list of the 5 things I wish I knew before buying a fujifilm instax mini 8 camera.





1. If the shutter button is not working, just change the battery of your instax camera.
One time, I was strolling at BGC (Bonifacio Global City Taguig) after Owl City's concert and I wanted to capture the moment using my instax camera. For a few minutes it's not working. But then it worked so I thought nothing was wrong. Then after a few days, I wanted to take a snap of my University's fountain of wisdom since I'll be graduating soon and my heart was so broken because the shutter button of my camera is not working I thought my fujifilm instax mini 8 is dead! I googled and I found out that I just have to change the battery. I did and it worked again! Apparently, you just have to use a fresh battery or you just have to change the battery constantly.


2.  Don't shake / wave your polaroid films in the air to make the image appear.
We've been seeing this on tv, people shaking the film to make the image appear. Apparently, this is bad and shouldn't be tolerated because it affects the photo.


3. Prevent exposure to light.
Polaroid film needs to be shielded from light to develop well. The first few seconds after the picture is ejected are crucial. As soon as the picture is ejected from the camera, turn it over and/or shield it with your hand and cover it with something or get it to a dark room. If you're shooting outside in bright sunlight, look into techniques for quickly covering the film with a darkslide to protect it when it's ejected (read more about this here).


4. Make sure to change the setting.
When shooting indoors or outdoors, make sure that you change the setting of your camera to match your environment. If you don't do this, you'll definitely get ugly photos. Like if you're shooting outside and you forgot to change your setting from indoor, you'll get a very pale photo. Sometimes, you'll just get a white photo, with no signs of image or whatsoever. Or if you're shooting indoors and you're setting is set to outdoor mode, you'll probably get a black photo. Unfortunately, this has happened to me several times.


5. Wet wipes will clean the exterior of the fujifilm instax mini 8.
You can use a lightly damp cloth or wet wipe to clean your camera. It easily removes the marks. Use a soft cloth to dry. For the longest time, I was so tempted to clean the exterior of my camera with alcohol and even acetone but I'm not really sure if that's alright though.







{Cover photo credit}