Waylaid By Dominic

I was waylaid by Dominic in the Murray Street shop one day. To be fair, he was armed with a new camera so the process wasn't scary - in fact it was a good chance to see a new Fujifilm camera. I am not a user of the Fujifilm Instax system - because my need for instant in-the-hand photos has long passed. At least I thought it had passed. Then Dom showed me the new features on the Instax Mini LiPlay and I realised that there is a degree of connectivity here that will just suit any number of people. Do you need instant photos in hand to give out or incorporate into presentations? That'll do it - and remember that Instax film is as good as the older Fujifilm FP100-C pack film was as far as colour and contrast. The Instax division of Fujifilm has been astoundingly successful this last decade based upon this quality. Score One But what if you take pictures with your mobile phone...and would like to print some of them with an Instax printer. Well, you can buy those and they've been successful too. However, consider this new camera - it can act wirelessly with your mobile phone to do the printing for you. Score Two. And what if you just want to take a few photos for later digital use...but don't want to print them out right away as hand-held images. The new camera incorporates a space for a mini Sd card and you can choose just to record to that - and then it'll replay the images on the back screen so that you can select just the ones you like. Score Three. Selfie mirror and close-up lens so that you can take pictures of you? Yes. Score Four. Internal frames so that you can put reindeer antlers and cat ears on yourself in those pictures? Of course. This is Japanese, remember... Score Five. But take heed of what Dom said when we totted up all the features. Instax cameras are meant for vertical pictures - you hold the camera upright and everything falls to hand. Hold it for a landscape shot and you'll be groping for the controls.