Photography Nostalgia

<p>When photography was still in its analogue era, Edwin Land unveiled the first commercial instant camera in the year 1948. A few years later Polaroid stepped in, improved the process and patented the technology. Sadly, the company couldn’t keep up and today Fujifilm is the sole maker of instant cameras and instant films.<br><br>The company recently announced a bunch of instant cameras in India ranging from Rs 6,444 to Rs 10,999. The most affordable of the lot is the Instax Mini 8 which comes in a variety of peppy colours including white, black, blue, pink, yellow and purple. It is a simple point and shoot camera which uses a cartridge of instant films which are loaded at the back of the camera, similar to a film-based one. A standard cartridge contains 10 instant films which cost approximately Rs 500 for a pack. This might not sound a very cost effective way to get 10 small photos, but since you instantly get a print, your time and cost to get your photos printed from a photo studio is reduced.<br><br>The shutter speed of the camera is fixed at 1/60 and the flash always fires, which can be annoying at instances like when you are shooting under the bright sun. The camera is very easy to use as there aren’t any settings on the camera except for brightness control via four modes; Indoors, Cloudy, Sunny and Bright. Basically these settings offer different aperture settings varying from f/12.7 to f/32. The viewfinder on the camera is disappointing as it is very tiny and the coverage area is also very less, which means that what you frame in the viewfinder is not the same in the photos. The small glossy photos definitely give you nostalgia even though the quality is not top notch. Frankly, one cannot expect high quality prints from such a low-priced camera.<br><br>This camera is not for your everyday usage as a digital camera or even your smartphone offers better quality and are more practical. The instant camera is rather a fun tool to have for those special memories like a birthday party or a trip to Disneyland, or for someone who prefers to have a physical copy rather than staring at his/her display.<br><br>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-07-2015)</p>