Our Camera Collection

I know several of you have been asking about the cameras in our little ol' collection, and while this definitely isn't all of them, it's a nice assortment of what Mike and I always have on hand. Yes, emphasis on always. If you have any specific questions about them, please leave them below and I'll try to do a follow-up in a few days! We love our little cameras so head over to MIKE'S BLOG [and follow him!] and check out what cameras we have on us at all times!

It's his male version of my "what's in my bag" post!

CLICK HERE to check it out!

Instax Mini vs. Instax 210

One of the questions I get very very often is which FujiFilm Instax camera I prefer over the other. Of course I welcome them with open arms because I'm pretty passionate about both of them, but I felt like maybe it was time to dish it all out in the form of a blog update and also to open up the comments to your personal reviews and opinions, too! Because this is just that... my opinion! I'd love to hear what others think! I'll forewarn you that this will be image heavy!

So we'll start with the Instax Mini since that was the first one I purchased back in November 2009! I wanted to treat myself to something nice and that cute little brown camera was just smiling at me! Let me preface these by saying this: If you want to buy them for the cheapest price, buy via Amazon.com! At least in my experience! I purchased my Mini for $70 + tax and film and I purchased my 210 for $80! I saw them at Urban Outfitters earlier this week for $105 and $135 respectively! Yikes!

Instax Mini - Choco

Pros:

• Convenient size. Easy to fit in a bag and carry out.
• Credit card size photos fit nicely in wallet.
• Photo size makes for great Christmas ornaments!
• Takes great photos indoors with low-light!
• Takes even better photos outside.
• The aperture settings are easy to understand and sensible.
• They make great impromptu business cards! (Try it!)
• Comes in different colors.

Cons:

• The picture size is half the size of the 210 yet roughly the same price.
• It is very aperture-sensitive. Easy to over and under expose!
• Really only "work" vertically. Horizontal photos are hard to compose.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Instax Wide 210

Pros:

• Larger picture size makes more of an impact.
• Comes with a close-up adapter for self shot portraits.
• Takes nice outdoor photos with decent lighting.
• Works both vertically and horizontally without appearing "odd".

Cons:

• Far from the best at indoor photos.
• Blurry shots produced if you forget the close-up adapter at times.
• Heavy and large! The 210 is very very bulky and makes it hard to carry around.

Verdict

My personal opinion is so very very torn. Mike and I have had the conversation multiple times and it's hard to really choose between the two. I love the size of the pictures from the 210, but I guess if I had to choose just one (like, life or death situation here!) then I'd go with the Mini because it's small enough for me to carry around, I can use the pictures for so many things, and it really handles low light situations well. Plus who can deny the cute and quirky personality of an alien-looking brown camera?!

But I'm interested in what you think! Do you own either camera? Which do you prefer? Are there things about each of them that would make it/break it for you? Let me hear about them in the comments!

If you're looking for film, I buy my Mini and Wide film here! MINI film in twin packs, and WIDE film in twin packs. It really pays to buy multiple packs at a time. Don't waste your money at places like Urban Outfitters. The markup is ridiculous!

Click through the jump below to see a whole heck of a lot of instax images! I scanned them in yesterday so why not share them?! (Note: I could've scanned them at a higher resolution so they're a bit blurry! Whoops!) Seriously... there are a lot of pictures after this jump! Haha

Oktoberfest Haul Part One: Camera Crazy!

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw all of my tweets last weekend exclaiming how amazing Oktoberfest was (and the entire week leading up to it!). Oktoberfest, for those who do not know, is a tradition in my hometown. It's an entire weekend devoted to about 20 miles of "yard sales" on both sides of the road.... packed right next to each other! It's amazing! It truly is a thrifter's dream! The local schools even get that Friday off of school! It beckons vendors and shoppers from all over the country. It's seen a decline in cool stuff over the past few years, but Mike was an Oktoberfest virgin so we decided to remedy that and boy oh boy! We lucked out!

I'm only going to post a photo or three (or seven) of the actual Oktoberfest festivities (mainly because we didn't take any *good* ones really. We were far too focused on finding awesome things!). Then you'll get to see about half of our camera haul! We finished the two day weekend (we skipped Sunday) with 27 new cameras to add to our collection I believe! We only photographed about 14 or so today. The rest are Polaroids. Both new styles to our collection, and duplicates. We never had the intention of starting a "collection" but it was basically inevitable. We're going to house them in a sweet case soon! [Yes, we are those people.]

And the cameras:

Among our finds was a Nikon F60 (Film SLR! Perfect working condition!), several 8mm video cameras, lots and lots and lotsss of Polaroids, and several more SLR cameras, too. All seem to be in working condition. Doubtful that we'll ever shoot with all of them, but it's still nice. 

I wish I could share with you EVERYTHING we happened upon but gosh golly, this little blog just wouldn't be able to house it all! We're heading out on our trip tomorrow pretty early so we're able to stop by this EPIC flea market in Crossville that I used to frequent when I was younger with my Nana! I hope it lives up to my expectations because I haven't been in about a decade! 

Mike and I are off to finish some errands and head over to my bar for a night's work and then come home to crash! I'll be back tomorrow with the Sunday Spotlight and hopefully some road-trip inspired stuff!