Return of the Polaroid: Fujifilm resurrects iconic camera to print card-sized photos instantly
- The Instax mini 90 Neo Classic prints photos from the top of the camera
- Is due to go on sale globally from 20 September at around £135
- It will hold a roll of 10-shot roll of film that is set to cost around £4.50
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The instant camera is set to make a comeback.
Japanese camera maker Fujifilm has unveiled a new camera that prints card-sized photos instantly.
Each time a photo is taken, the printout appears from the top of the camera and, like the infamous Polaroid version, will develop and dry as it hits the air.
Japanese camera maker Fujifilm has unveiled
its Instax mini 90 Neo Classic, pictured, that prints card-sized photos
instantly. Official pricing information for the UK hasn't been released
but it is expected to cost around £135 with a 10-shot film roll priced
at around £4.50
Fujifilm announced the camera during an event in Tokyo and it will go on sale in Japan on 23 August before being released globally on September 20.
A 10-shot roll of film will cost around ¥700, which would be around £4.55.
Fujifilm was the first company to produce film in 1934 and began selling instant cameras during the 1980s with its F series, including the F-10 and F-50S.
The technology was first sold commercially by American Scientist Edwin Land, who co-founded the Polaroid corporation.
Speaking at the event in Tokyo, general manager Fujifilm's photo imaging products division, Masato Yamamoto told the Wall Street Journal: 'People crave something real, a physical object that is unique and that you can hold in your hand.
The camera, pictured being held by users at
an event in Tokyo, can shoot multiple exposures and has shutter speeds
up to 1/400 of a second meaning it can be used in a range of lighting
conditions
Photographer Mikiya Takimoto added that the technology makes people think more about the photos they're taking and ultimately makes them better photographers.
Fujifilm is hoping the release will restore sales of its instant camera range, which had fallen by 90 per cent in 2002.
A recent trend for retro-style cameras has been fuelled by Kickstarter campaigns that have sought to bring back old photography techniques such as pin-hole cameras made from cereal boxes and a matchbox-sized portable projectors that can be used with Instagram pictures.
HOW DO INSTANT CAMERAS WORK?
A chemical reagent made sits in a layer just above the light-sensitive layers of the film, but below the image layer.
Before the picture is taken, the reagent is collected at the border of the sheet of film.
When the pictures is taken, the film is rolled out of the camera and the reagent is spread into the middle of the sheet and pushed between the layers of the film.
It then moves downward through the layers, changing the exposed particles in each layer into metallic silver.
The chemicals dissolve the developer dye so it begins to move up towards the image layer.
The metallic silver areas at each layer stick to the dyes and stops them from moving further.
This means only the dyes and colours needed to make the picture move through the layers to where they are needed. The colours then mix to create a translucent green film on the surface of the image.
Light reflects off the white pigment in the reagent and shines through the colour layers.
The timing layer slows the reagent down on its path to the acid layer, to give the film time to develop before it is exposed to light.
The stage where the image develops is the final chemical reaction in which an acid layer clears up the opacifiers in the reagent so the image is visible.
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