Who said that film is dead?
Who said that instax cameras are dead?
And tell me, who said that Fujifilm makes beautiful cameras ;-)?
The demand for instax film is very high, especially in Asia. In fact it is so high that there is not much instax Film left for N.America and if it runs out of stock it could need a couple of moths before stores will be ready to ship the next batch of film.
Instax are winners! That’s why Fujifilm continues to develop new models. The latest one is the new INSTAX WIDE 300 camera, launched along with the X100T and graphite Fujifilm X-T1. My personal favorite is still the Instax Mini Neoclassic 90, launched about a year ago.
The success of the Instax cameras pushes, at the same time, the sales of Instax Film. And the earnings are used for developing the X-line, at least according FR-reader “rf”, who said in the comments: “I was talking with one of the Fuji Guys at an event a while back and he confirmed that Instax is where Fuji is making all their money in photography and it is in fact fueling the development cost of the X cameras.”
But also X-shooters could have a good reason to buy Instax Film. In fact, you can connect the latest Fuji X cameras directly to the Instax SHARE Smartphone Printer SP-1 and print your shots just a few seconds after you’ve pressed the shutter button… btw, Fujifilm, direct Instax Printer support would be a nice feature to have also on my “old” X-E2. Time for a little bit of Kaizen.
So, APS-C? Full Frame? Medium Format?… no, it’s Instax that spanks them all, Zack ;-)!
cheers,
36 Responses
Women love those things. Ask my wife (but she keeps calling it ‘Polaroid’ 😉 Good for Fuji….
What would be really great is if they managed to put the instax films into the old polaroid film packs to work with the land camera 100 series. The FP-100C and FP-3000B are great but there are situations where non-sticky ISO800 film would be really nice…
It’s easier to buy a $65 camera than one that costs $1400 + lenses.
sure, price matters.
Maybe not in the P&S segment, as the expensive X-series cameras sell much better there than all those cheap Finepix cameras. But overall, price matters for sure.
The “sensor” is larger than full frame. 😉
Even so much bigger than anything that is sold as “medium format” sensor these days. 😉
This raises a question. How wide is 95mm is on this Instax Wide format? 35mm equivalent = ??
Crop factor is about 0.36. So pretty close to 35mm, which makes a lot of sense if you consider it is a fixed lens.
So if the Instax is the absolute best-selling non-video camera, how come most of us outside Asia have never, ever seen anyone using one, anywhere?
Either Asians must be pushing up the average by buying an absolutely staggering number of them… or else Amazon rankings aren’t actually a good proxy for overall camera sales after all. I know which of those alternatives sounds more plausible to me…
Ich know people who own and use them. And as far as I know they are much more popular in the US.
I personnally (living in France) see many people using this kind of Fuji Instax. Really funny (main problems : group photo, who keep the photo ? and cost of instax film).
Many manufacturers offer P&S camera, but only Fuji (?) offers instax => good rank on amazon rankings
i see them all over the place here in America.
I own one… or better, I bought it for my mother
Believe it or not, they sell like hot cakes 😉
I see the Instax sold in a lot of Walmarts and Targets here in the USA.
Dude you must live in no-mans land. US fules sales with all the Hipsters. See tourists with them in SF too. Not that I would buy one for myself… But maybe my sister ?
To it for what you like. I was talking with one of the Fuji Guys at an event a while back and he confirmed that Instax is where Fuji is making all their money in photography and it is in fact fueling the development cost of the X cameras.
Sorry rf but you should save future embarrassment and look at Fujifilm’s financials to see where the money comes from–hint: it’s NOT from cameras, bro, or film.
I think what he meant by “making all their money in photography” is money coming from photography related product, not from any other fuji businesses.
Wonder also when they will release an instax share sp-wide.
Smart Fuji 🙂
I have the Neo 90 and it is a lot of fun to take to parties. I like to take pics and give them away. I plan on getting a couple more to give away as Christmas presents.
ahaha this is funny. where are all the photopros announcing how fail this system must be for not improving on 40 year old technology. lol fuji stuck in the past so fail lol this has like 0MP and only f/11 so bad AHAR
Like what other instant film cameras are there, anyway? They’re cheap and are sold way beyond Fujifilm’s usual outlets.
A quick look at Fujifilm’s financials shows just how little the company relies on revenues from their “Imaging Solutions.” They can well afford to have fun with Instax and the X-series system.
I have no doubt these things sell like hot cakes. I see them everywhere and people always like receiving one. Great gifts and a great way to befriend photo subjects. As for the ranking system it is manipulated in many ways. No one is privy to all the information but profit margins and inventory stock may have more influence than you think for individual products that aren’t as popular as the instax. For a brief guide on sales ranks try this explanation of exponential fall off and taking one point as an indicator of success:
http://sellerengine.com/top-5-things-you-need-to-know-about-amazon-sales-rank/
The link will explain why we often see very old items such as NEX5 or 6 at the top of the sales rank. Sales ranks degrade rapidly but if a sale is made it is taken as cumulative and added to the highest previous rank! This can be very misleading in my view.
Instax got a lot more popular after the iCloud fiasco. I’m sure Jennifer Lawrence wished she used an Instax for her selfies.
INSTAX *crushes* X camera sales. Fuji said that they sold 2.4 MILLION INSTAX cameras last year. Fujifilm hasn’t even sold ONE million X cameras in FOUR years.
INSTAX CRUSHES X cameras.
Is that a surprise? 🙂
And in four years Instax will likely be history while the X series thrives.
Back to the APUG echo chamber, Ratty.
cheapie china product rocks. well done fuji!
Instax owner spotted in Babur Gardens doing a great trade selling instants, Kabul.
Instax owner spotted in the Barbur Gardens Kabul.
Wish they could make the Wide format Instax cameras come down in size – this is even bigger than my Fuji GA645Zi. It kind of resembles the styling of GA645Zi, too. Do you think the wide 300 was the inspiration for rumors that there would be a medium format Fuji camera coming?
Seems it looks like, they’re some “Fuji-Guys” here, what are you waiting for to create some Black And White Instax Film, and maybe others one … We, as fuji-users, could beat and become better than Impossible 😉
Yes, please Fuji, make some B&W Instax! Sales would be off the scale for the larger size now you’ve dumped the pack film!
Fuji stops the production of their best pro instant film ever, the Fuji FP-3000b, and the Instax sales increase. The problem is not the digital advance, but the lack of spaces dedicated to photography and photographic culture.
Few Instax enthusiasts know what they could achieve with an old series 100 Polaroid (Pola 180, 190, 195, 250, …) and the Fuji instant film FP-3000b:
https://bonjourn.al/blog/12-save-fp-3000b-an-interview-with-michael-ash-smith
http://www.change.org/p/stop-the-discontinuation-of-fuji-3000b-instant-film-by-fujifilm
Maybe 35mm analogue photography lost some sense (maybe), but Instant photography is a category per se.
Cheers.