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Avery HartmansMay 19, 2017, 08.41 PM
Read full story Avery Hartmans/Business Insider Fujifilm's Instax Mini 9 Camera.
The best way to describe Fujifilm's Instax Mini 9 camera is with one word: Delightful.

Tech features aside, the camera is just plain adorable. When I opened the box for the first time, I quite literally squealed with excitement (and I'm not a squealer). It's small, it's retro, and it comes in an array of fun colors - mine was a minty blue-green called ice blue.

Here's what I mean.

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User-error issues aside, the Instax Mini 9 takes some great little photos. Using this camera for a few weeks was the most fun I've had with a gadget in ages. It's low-tech, for sure, but perhaps we could all benefit from going back to basics.

The Mini 9 has a small lens attachment meant for taking close-up photos that conveniently snaps on the front of the camera. But my experience with it wasn't great. My photo of a bowl of grapes was completely out of focus, and another photo of some clever refrigerator magnets was basically one giant blur. In my time testing it out, I didn't shoot one close-up photo I liked.

The same thing happened to this poor heart-eyes emoji pillow. Lesson learned: Use high-key mode wisely, and probably not in bright, sunny rooms.

This one was...not so great. Here I was testing Instax Mini's high-key mode, but it was far too bright in the room for it to work properly. I think this photo may have had potential, but a missing nose just isn't something I can work with.

I obviously had to try out Instax Mini 9's selfie capabilities, and the reliability of its tiny, built-in mirror. The verdict: Very impressive. Even though the mirror is little and has something of a fish-eye effect, it actually really helped in lining up the photo correctly. It was a small —but thoughtful — addition to the camera.

These are just tiny instant pictures, not high-quality film prints. But the natural vignette in the afternoon sky, the graininess of the Flatiron Building, and the bluish hue to the image automatically makes it more beautiful than a standard smartphone shot.

You can adjust the brightness yourself by twisting a dial around the lens — your options are indoors, cloudy, sunny/slightly cloudy, and sunny and bright, plus the high-key mode. But the camera also has light sensors and will suggest a setting based on the amount of light present.

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