Another new camera for instax film

Skiff said:
For many years now instax is not a niche anymore. Five years ago instax sales have surpassed DSLM sales. Last year they have surpassed DSLR sales. This year they will probably reach 10 million cameras sold p.a.. That would be about 2.5x the volume of mirrorless!
Instax has become a huge mass market.
Click to expand...

That statistic's been mentioned a few times here and while I don't dispute it, I'm just saying that it might not be a tempting factor for the bigger mass-market manufacturers: it's just a different market than they want to focus on. As an analog, I'm sure the growth of electric sedans is outpacing box truck sales as well, but that doesn't mean delivery companies are jumping ship to Tesla. (I also realize that they're trying to break into the trucking game, but bear with me for the sake of argument)

I should clarify what I meant by 'niche,' and that was within the context of what I assume is the target market of Nikon/Canon/what have you, who buy entire kits at camera and electronics stores. Niche within product lines, not volume. Of course it's a huge booming market, but as a fun, creative toy to augment cell phones (which, of course, cannibalized the point-and-shoot sector). It looks like these companies are really trying to refine their product lines toward 'higher end' digital photography rather than spread thin chasing the casual snapshot market, which was already lost to Apple and Samsung, etc.

Complicating all that are tooling costs, marketing and distribution networks, and so on. A lot of money to sink into something that isn't your core brand. But easy to do for these little Kickstarter projects where there's less financial risk and you don't have fingers in other pots. I'm thinking of Hasselblad's strange and ill-received forays into the small-format game a few years ago.

I see it a bit like disposable cameras, in their day: hugely popular, but dominated by Kodak and Fuji—why didn't, say, Pentax jump on board? I don't really have an answer,

I'm not in the industry and haven't worked in it in about a decade, so I'm just speculating on your original implication as to why established manufacturers aren't joining in on the craze. I'm also not knocking it either; they're fun, and I really do miss shooting pack film on my Bronica.

Do I wish a little bit Nikon would make a full-featured instant camera, maybe with interchangeable lenses? Absolutely. Would I be willing to pay a couple hundred to buy into another new system? Probably not. And I think that's why we probably won't see a whole lot from traditional manufacturers. Fuji makes money off every pack of film, like the old Gillette model. Camera manufacturers make money off of customers upgrading and expanding their kit. I just don't see casual Instax users as a whole buying feature-packed cameras or digital photographers sinking a lot into 'toy' cameras. The beauty and appeal is their simplicity.


Anyway, rant over. I'm waiting for some way to adapt MF cameras to Instax so I can shoot instant with MF again...
 
Skiff said:
Just FYI:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/escura/escura-instant-60s-hand-powered-instant-camera

Interesting to see how the established camera industry is ignoring the most successful camera segment:
In 2017 instax camera sales have surpassed DSLR sales. DSLM sales were surpassed by instax sales already five years ago.
This year instax will most likely also surpass sales of digital compact cameras.
But the established camera manufacturers (exception: Leica) are all ignoring the only significantly growing and biggest camera segment.
Instax is an "open format". It is not exclusive to Fujifilm. Lomography, Leica, MINT and some smaller companies (see above) are producing instax cameras.

There are so much market gaps in this instax market which could be successfully filled by established camera manufacturers. But they are too ignorant to see the chances.
Click to expand...


I saw this online earlier this week and backed it! I look forward to the battery-free version personally.
 
zuiko85 said:
Skiff said;
"....you just need a good 4-element lens (Tessar-type)…"

Would you even need a lens that good? I think even a triplet would do. The Instax are (usually) not enlarged, and I've read (on the internet, so it must be true) that the resolution of Instax film is 12 lpp so.....really how much resolution would one need? I'm not saying any old one element plastic meniscus lens would do, just that a Tessar might be overkill and increase cost over an air spaced triplet.

Or am I just blowing steam?
Click to expand...

My suggestion to use a Tessar type lens comes from the fact that I've seen instax pictures made with excellent large format lenses (see one of my posts above).
I think such a Tessar lens would be the best compromise of
- having enough quality
- delivering compactness in construction
- being cost efficient.
Maybe a good Triplet would be good enough, too.
To know for sure needs a comparison test of course :).
 
brbo said:
Correct, you can only improve build quality and ergonomics.
Click to expand...

No, there is more, because you can also significantly increase the picture quality (better lens, better light meter and exposure, possibility of manual exposure).
And you can increase the versatility and feature set.

And the potential market is very big:
At Photokina this year Fujifilm explained that the market for instax is currently 40 million users worldwide and increasing.
Let's be very conservative and assume that only 5% of that would have interest in a better camera: That would be a market of two million potential users.
 
Last edited:
I just know the Instax film is capable of much sharper and better exposed photographs than what are coming out of the little plastic point and shoot cameras. Give me some way to use the film in a professional way (good lenses, manual focus, manual exposure).
 
Looks all but unusable: Hand-crank the camera in a jerky manner as shown in the videos and you'll get really uneven development. If you need sharper images than the Fujifilm cameras provide, try the Lomo Instant Automat Glass.
 
slightly off topic but.. fuji now has billboards all over LA advertising Instax cameras. I guess in time for the holiday buys.
Apart from Apple’s ‘shot on an iphone’ campaign I cannot remember the last time I have seen cameras advertised out in the open.
 
JeffS7444 said:
Looks all but unusable: Hand-crank the camera in a jerky manner as shown in the videos and you'll get really uneven development. If you need sharper images than the Fujifilm cameras provide, try the Lomo Instant Automat Glass.
Click to expand...

Never had an issue hand cranking my mamiya universal with a belair back or my ETRSi with a printoss back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom