The instax mini 99 is an instant camera designed for Fujifilm’s instax mini film. Launched in March 2024, it’s aimed at anyone who wants more control than a budget model, like the Mini 12, while remaining a fully analogue camera. 

The 99 lets you brighten or darken exposures, offers Bulb and double exposure modes, has three focus zones, a rechargeable battery, tripod thread, and features coloured LEDs inside the body to deliver neat effects without any digital manipulation.

These all roughly double the camera’s price over a basic Mini 12, but are worth it for those who want more than a fully automatic experience. It’s by far the most advanced analogue instax camera from Fujifilm to date, and easily my favourite. My full review is in the video below, but if you prefer tor ead the written highlights, keep scrolling!

As an analogue camera, the Mini 99 doesn’t have a sensor, screen or memory, nor any means to transfer images to your phone. Instead the light from the lens directly exposes the film inside, with paper prints emerging after you take the shot, and the image fading into view a couple of minutes later. 

If you want to share a picture on your phone, you’ll need to take a photo of the print itself, although Fujifilm’s updated instax app at least makes this easy.

Like all instax mini cameras, the mini 99 is only compatible with instax mini cartridges which contain ten prints and cost around 15 dollars or pounds for a twin pack – that works out around 75 cents or pence a print. 

Larger packs are also available and sometimes work out a bit cheaper, and Fujifilm also sells a variety with different border styles if you fancy it, as well as monochrome carts for black and white photography.

Instax mini prints are roughly credit card sized, with the actual picture measuring 2.4×1.8in or 62x48mm, leaving a little room on one side for writing a note or caption with a marker pen. I generally shoot instax mini in the tall portrait shape, so the extra space is below the image rather than to the side.

The mini 99 is the unofficial successor to the mini 90, also known as the NEO Classic, a camera released about ten years ago and while now long-discontinued, you may still find one for about $50 or pounds less.

Like most new instax cameras, there’s a number of features shared with the previous model, but the mini 99 boasts many more upgrades than the entry-level series has seen in a long time, making it the most advanced analogue camera in the instax series to date.

In terms of design, the mini 99 is closer to the vintage style of the mini 40 on the left, sensibly steering away from the cuter but inevitably more toy-like looks of the mini 12 on the right. 

So it’s out with the mini 12’s curves, pastel colours and smooth finish, and in with sharper angles and a classy-looking (albeit not rubberised) black textured finish with engraved lettering.

Sadly the 99 lacks the red and brown versions of the old 90, so it’s black only now. If you prefer to cover-up, Fujifilm sells an optional case for the mini 99 which continues the retro style.

In a classy feature inherited from its predecessor, the mini 99 is powered by a rechargeable and removable Lithium Ion battery, albeit a different type. 

Sadly this still can’t be charged in-camera though, so you’ll need to remove and fit it into the supplied charger. This is powered by USB C and while Fujifilm supplies a cable, you’ll need to provide your own adapter.

In another classy move over the budget models, the 99 inherits the tripod thread of the 90. It’s squeezed into one corner, but the camera’s so light, you can still keep it steady with even a small tripod. 

New to the mini 99 is a small metal cyclinder which screws into the tripod thread, providing an unusual-looking additional grip, which is surprisingly effective when shooting tall vertical prints, albeit less so for horizontal wide ones. This also includes a thread on the opposite side, so you can use it on a tripod too.

Like all of Fujifilm’s analogue instax mini cameras, the 99 employs a 60mm f12.7 lens which, on mini film, delivers coverage equivalent to around 34mm – that’s a mild wide angle, ideal for general use from portraits and selfies to buildings and landscapes.

As with previous models, twisting a ring around the lens barrel extends it for use, while also powering-up the camera. Like the mini 90 before it, there’s three focusing ranges, with the first twist preparing the camera for subjects between 3m and infinity. 

A second small twist refocuses the lens for subjects between 60cm and 3m, while a final twist adjusts it for subjects in a 30 to 60cm range. This choice of three ranges is a little more sophisticated than the two ranges of the basic mini cameras, although the closest focusing distance is similar.

In the first of the new features, a small lever on the front of the lens barrel partly closes a small iris, which in turn creates a vignetting effect where the corners on your prints become darker. This is a really fun way to physically apply a vignette, but do remember to switch it back when you’re done.

When holding the camera for vertical prints, you’ll use the shutter release button on the front that’s to the left of the lens housing. But in a considerate move, Fujifilm has also equipped the camera with a second shutter release button on the side that’s more comfortable to reach when shooting in the landscape orientation.

That second shutter button is actually inside one of the other major upgrades on the 99: a pair of new control dials on the side. The dial on the left dials-in one of six new colour effects: Faded Green, Warm Tone, Light Blue, Soft Magenta, Sepia and Light Leak. 

At first these all sound like forgettable digital effects, until you remember this is a fully analogue camera. So how’s the 99 applying them?

Opening the film compartment on the back reveals the 99’s secret: a coloured LED in each corner of the frame, which illuminate during an exposure to add extra colour. You can see them blink briefly as I go through the modes.

This is absolute genius, and I love how they’re applying a variety of coloured effects in a fully-analogue workflow. They’re not too heavy-handed either, although since they are adding more light, you may want to underexpose your shots when using them. Light Leak was my favourite and uses different combinations of light on each shot, for a unique look.

The dial on the right side houses the second shutter release button and acts as exposure compensation, with two options to lighten the image and two to darken it. L and L+ brighten the image by +⅔ or +1EV respectively, while D and D+ darken it by -⅔ or -5/3 EV. 

I often find analogue instax cameras can under or over-expose under certain conditions, so I’m delighted to have some manual control over it. To be fair, the earlier mini 90 also had some exposure control, but the 99 takes it further, allowing it to handle a broader range of conditions, at least until you hit the extremes of the shutter speed range.

Note both dials turn quite easily and neither are lockable, so beware when pulling the camera out of a bag or snug pocket. Remember the red N on the left dial stands for Neutral with no colour effects applied, while the single dot in the middle of the right dial is for normal exposures.

But that’s not the end of the controls as there’s three buttons and an LCD screen on the rear. Pushing the mode button cycles between five options: normal, Indoor (which uses slower shutter speeds to brighten interiors), Sports (which uses faster shutters to freeze action), Double Exposure (which lets you take two shots that are combined on a single photo), and Bulb (which keeps the shutter open for up to ten seconds while you keep the button pressed).

All but the Normal mode are indicated with an icon in the screen, along with the battery life and shots remaining in your cartridge. Note there are some restrictions based on the lens focus range, for example when set to the closest zone, Indoor and Sports become unavailable.

Pushing the self-timer button toggles a ten second self-timer with a light on the front which blinks for the final three seconds. Coupled with the tripod thread, it makes the mini 99 practical for keeping slower exposures steady, although note the self-timer won’t work with the Bulb mode as it requires you to manually hold the shutter button down for as long as you’d like.

Finally the flash button cycles between auto based on the conditions, fill which always fires, off, and red-eye reduction. There’s also slow-syncro when used with the Indoor mode. Again nothing new over the mini 90, but control over the flash is a big improvement over the basic models which fire it blindly every single time.

The screen on the back also indicates the colour mode if selected, but not the current brightness setting, so again it’s worth checking the position of those dials before you commit to pushing the button – remember each print is costing you the best part of a pound or dollar.

As an analogue camera, composition is with the optical viewfinder on the rear, which lacks any guidelines, so it’s something you have to get used to. As always, parallax means the accuracy of the viewfinder reduces at closer ranges, but in another considerate move, the mini 99 slightly adjusts the viewfinder coverage when you twist the lens to the minimum distance. It’s still not 100% accurate, but definitely helps.

Like the mini 90 before it though, the 99 lacks the selfie mirror on the front of the budget models. This may seem cheesy, but genuinely helps you compose selfies with those models, and I missed it here. So for selfies on the 99, you will be shooting blind.

Ok, now for some prints I took with the mini 99, and I wanted to start with a view that’s normally over-exposed on the basic analogue mini cameras, even on an overcast day. 

Here the print on the left was taken with a normal exposure, albeit with the vignette enabled, hence the darker corners, while the version on the right was taken with the darkest D- setting and the vignette disabled. 

You can clearly see how the image on the right is darker, retaining details in the overcast sky and white pier building which are washed out on the normal version, albeit in turn losing most of the foreground to shadow. 

Instax film has a limited dynamic range, so unless you’re very creative with the flash and subject distance, you’ll generally have to sacrifice bright highlights or dark shadows.

Note the 99 shares the same shutter range as the 90 in most modes, so 1.8 seconds to 1/400, giving both a broader selection than the basic models, allowing them to better-handle bright or dark conditions.

The vignette doesn’t work well given a white sky on the left, but when you deliberately under-exposure or have more colour across the frame, it can be much more effective as seen in this shot. Here’s another deliberate under-exposure for a moody result, albeit now without the vignette.

At the other end of the scale, here’s a couple of examples taken indoors in low light with the flash turned off, forcing the camera to deploy a slower shutter speed for a correct exposure. 

The cafe shot on the left was handheld, so suffers from a little wobble at slower shutters, but the guitars on the right were taken from a mini tripod with a self-timer, showing how crisp the results can be if you’re careful with technique.

Taking this further, here’s two shots I took using the Bulb mode at night as double-decker buses drove past. In both cases, I was using a tripod, carefully keeping the shutter fully-pushed until the print emerged, so both represent the longest ten second exposures. 

Limitations with instax film means you’ll sometimes notice dark marks where the paper has become over-saturated, such as in the middle of bright lights, but overall I love being able to make longer exposures like these. It gives the 99 – and the earlier 90 – greater control than the basic models.

Also inherited from the 90 is the chance to make double exposures. As a fully analogue process, there’s no chance to preview the first shot as you line up the second, and I’d also recommend underexposing otherwise you’ll end up with too much light. But again it’s a really fun and creative bonus over the budget models.

Moving onto the big new feature of the 99 over any model to date though, here’s some examples of the various colour effects, generated by those coloured LEDs inside the camera. 

These have varying success depending on the subject, but I love how they’re being created entirely in the analogue domain, without any digital manipulation. Note for brighter landscape views, you may wish to combine them with a deliberate under-exposure.

Of all the effects, I think my favourite is the light leak, which appears to generate a random result each time, or at least have a few different settings for the camera to pick from. 

Again the result can inevitably look a little faded or over-exposed, but then that’s what a light leak would do, and given it’s being generated artificially, I think it looks quite authentic. Certainly as someone who’s owned several film cameras with leaks, I can tell you the result isn’t dissimilar, and it gives a nice vintage look to some images.

It’s so much fun playing with the various effects that you forget it can also take normal pictures too. In fact it’s the sheer variety of conditions that it can work under that make the mini 99 by far Fujifilm’s best analogue instax camera so far.

Fujifilm instax mini 99 verdict

Overall the instax mini 99 becomes the most advanced and creative analogue camera in Fujifilm’s series to date. It may inherit a great deal from the discontinued mini 90, but adds some genuinely new and innovative features, most notably the vignette and colour effects, applied by a physical iris and internal LEDs respectively. 

We’ve seen similar effects in the digital domain, including on several of Fujifilm’s digital EVO models, but I love that they’re being generated in a fully analogue system here. Couple them with some control over exposure and you have a camera that’s not only more fun than the basic models, but capable of handling a much broader range of conditions from light to dark. Not only does this allow greater creativity, but means far fewer wasted prints due to limitations on the budget cameras.

Sure, composition with the basic optical viewfinder is still a weakpoint on all of Fujifilm’s analogue instax cameras, but even third-party instant SLRs like those from NONS involve compromises too. If you want accurate framing on an instant camera, you’ll need to dump your fully analogue fantasy in favour of a digital model.

And while it may also lack the full manual exposures of the NONS SLRs, I still felt there was still sufficient control to achieve pretty much any effect I wanted. In fact short of developing a completely new framing system, the only thing I’d request in the future are versions for instax square and wide formats. 

If you prefer the mini format, do keep an eye open for discounted mini 90’s which offer a similar degree of control, but overall the 99 becomes Fujifilm’s best analogue camera to date and well worth spending the extra over a basic mini 12. It’s very welcome for anyone who wants a practical upgrade in control and creativity while maintaining a fully analogue system.