Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay Review
How do you sell a budget-priced point-and-shoot camera when smartphones have become so good at taking pictures? Fujifilm hopes the answer is to simply add an instant film printer, as evidenced in the Instax Mini LiPlay ($159.95), which is priced low enough to be considered an impulse purchase. There are some rough edges we would like to see smoothed out, but overall it’s a very fun camera to use, one with special appeal to social butterflies and party photographers. After all, it’s cool to share phone shots on Instagram, but there’s no substitute to handing someone a print of a great candid capture.
Mục lục
Cute and Compact
The Instax Mini LiPlay is a cute little camera. It’s about as small as can be managed while still holding a pack of Instax film, coming in at 4.8 by 3.3 by 1.4 inches (HWD) and 8.9 ounces. Its digital nature, which makes a much smaller lens possible, definitely has advantages over purely analog models. The entry-level Instax Mini 9 is bigger all around, at 4.7 by 4.6 by 2.7 inches.
It saves digital images to microSD (a card isn’t included), and also works with Instax Mini film. It produces 1.8-by-2.4-inch prints, with a classic Polaroid-style frame. The film is easy to find—my local big-box store stocks it, though don’t expect to find it at convenience stores. Pricing varies, but expect to pay around a dollar per print (it’s also worth noting Fuji doesn’t include a pack of film in the box). Because the LiPlay is digital, you only need to print the images you want, though.
The LiPlay is available in three colors, including Blush Gold, which we received for review, as well as Elegant Black and Stone White. All three look good in their own way. Blush Gold will match the look of your iPhone’s Rose Gold finish, Elegant Black has nice texture on the body and gold accents, and Stone White is light gray with mottled white dots.
The lens is a wide-angle prime that covers a 28mm-equivalent angle of view—about the same as your smartphone’s main lens. There’s a selfie mirror next to it, so you can more easily frame arm’s-length shots, and it’s flanked by the shutter release (to take photos), and a second button to activate the camera’s audio recording features (more on that later).
Most of the back is taken up by a 2.7-inch, 230k-dot LCD. It’s a very low-quality screen by modern standards, not only in terms of resolution, but also in viewability. On bright days, expect to shield it with your cupped hand to see it well. Still, it’s good enough to frame up shots and to review the images to choose which you’ll print, which is what you need it for.
A row of controls sits below the display. You get a four-way directional pad and Menu/OK button, along with Return, Play, and Print buttons. Operation is almost entirely automatic, but the d-pad does give you the option to suppress the LED flash, shoot with a filtered look, add a frame to a shot before printing, and set a self-timer. There’s no tripod socket, but you can set up a group shot if you can find a flat surface to place the camera on.
Operation is purely point and shoot. You don’t have control over autofocus points, exposure compensation, or even white balance. This may irk you if you’re used to using a more advanced camera, but it makes operation a one-button affair, broadening appeal to people who just want to take and print photos.
You’re not going to be blown away by image quality. The camera captures photos using a 5MP sensor, smaller than the one on your smartphone, and is good for still shots only. It’s plenty of resolution for Instax prints, though you don’t get advanced computational features found in smartphones, like HDR, portrait effect, and night shot modes. Of course, you can print any image from your phone using the LiPlay app.
In outdoor light and brightly lit interiors, you’ll enjoy speedy autofocus. But the focus does slow down in dim conditions. The LED flash kicks in as a focus-assist beam, and results are typically pretty accurate. But if you’re hip enough to attend parties in dimly lit venues, expect some hesitation in focus, and expect to use the flash.
You can give images a different look—vivid, sepia, black-and-white, and the like—using a filter setting. But you have to pick your filter before taking the shot. This is in contrast to Fujifilm’s other hybrid digital Instax camera, the SQ20, which offers extensive in-camera editing tools. It’s a shame that they’re not included here, or in the companion app.
Bluetooth is included for wireless connection to your phone, and the internal battery charges via a micro USB port There’s also a microSD slot—internal memory holds about 45 shots, so you can use the camera if you don’t have a card, however. (A 1GB card will expand storage to about 850 images.)
Mini LiPlay App
The On/Off button, along with a trio of numbered Shortcut buttons, are on the side. Shortcuts are used to quickly add decorative frames to images—you’ll need to configure them using the companion app first, though. It’s pretty easy to do, and you’ll gain access to some other features by setting it up.
Speaking of the app, we tested the LiPlay app for iOS; an Android version is also available. The app has a few functions. You can use it as a remote control for the camera, complete with a live feed from the lens. The feed is a little choppy, but it’s adequate for setting up a group shot and snapping multiple takes. There’s no tripod socket on the LiPlay, but it will stand up on its own if you find a flat surface.
You’ll need to use the app if you want to take advantage of the LiPlay’s audio recording features. If you press the Microphone button on the face of the camera before taking a shot, the LiPlay records ten seconds of audio, which it saves along with the picture.
See How We Test Digital Cameras
You can print a shot with an embedded QR code at a corner of the image from the camera, but in order for it to do anything, you need to sync up shots with the app. It works, but the extra steps involved, and the need to put an ugly QR code on your print, make it more gimmick than feature in my mind.
Oddly enough, while the LiPlay app automatically downloads shots with embedded audio, there’s no way to transfer other images from the camera to your phone for editing. Given the lack of in-camera image editing, that’s a big oversight, especially considering how easy it is to print photos from your phone using the app—you can load anything from your camera roll and have a developed print in a matter of minutes.
You can print any image stored on your phone using the app. The app even includes the same stickers available in-camera, so you can add them to shots before printing. Decorations range from bunny ears and antlers to artistic light leak effects.
Disappointingly, more basic editing tools aren’t included. There’s no way to rotate a shot before printing it in the app. You’ll need to edit shots in another app if you aren’t happy with how they look right out of your phone’s camera. If you’re well versed in photo editing this isn’t a big deal, but for a product that sells itself on ease of use, we wish the app delivered a more inclusive experience.
Small Prints, Big Fun
The Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay isn’t the company’s first attempt at making an Instax camera with a digital sensor. It started the trend with its hipper Instax Square format, and now offers the second-generation SQ20 for a bit more money.
There are some things that I really love about the LiPlay. It’s easy to use, with largely one-button operation, and digital capture means that you only need to print the photos you want. It’s a bit pricier than the basic Instax Mini 9 analog camera, which sells for around $50, but you won’t go through film as quickly.
But there are rough edges, too. The companion app could be better—we’d love to be able to transfer all images from the camera to your phone for editing—and we’d like to see basic filters and rotation tools added to the printing interface. You may find the audio feature a bit more appealing than I do, but even if it enjoys little use, its presence doesn’t detract from the package.
We’d also like to see some sort of in-camera editing available. You can set it to shoot in black-and-white before you take the shot, but you can’t add it after the fact. The SQ20 takes a very different approach, allowing you to add filters after you make a photo, and print as many different versions of it as you want. Of course, the SQ20 doesn’t have Bluetooth, so it can’t print photos from your phone like the LiPlay can.
But even with some room for improvement, the Instax Mini LiPlay is a fun camera to use. Its image quality may not be competitive with an iPhone 11 Pro, but it’s also a lot less expensive, and it has the one killer feature missing from your smartphone—instant prints. There’s just no substitute from being able to give a friend—or even a stranger who asks you to take a photo—a print right after you snap a shot.
Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay
3.5
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$159.95
at Adorama
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MSRP $159.95
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The Bottom Line
The Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay is a fun point-and-shoot camera with a built-in printer that works with Instax film.
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