When comparing Leica Sofort vs Fujifilm Instax Mini 70, the Slant community recommends Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 for most people. In the question“What are the best instant cameras for selfies?” Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 is ranked 1st while Leica Sofort is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 is:
It offers 3 shooting modes – an auto mode (landscape and macro focusing modes), dedicated selfie mode and a hi-key mode for extreme brightness. These 3 modes offer everything a beginner might need. The focus modes can be changed to landscape, normal or macro modes with just the touch of a button.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Plenty of shooting modes to choose from
While auto mode will be enough most of the time, Leica has equipped this camera with a wide range of additional modes to choose from. It includes a selfie mode, macro mode, a double exposure mode and a bulb mode.
Pro Three focus modes
There are three focus modes for macro, close and normal distances.
Pro Exposure control
The Sofort has exposure control, which can be tweaked with to create lighter or darker images.
Pro Flash control options
Users can control the flash by switching it on/off, enable red eye reduction or leave it in automatic mode.
Pro Good for 100 shots on one battery charge
The camera has a rechargeable battery that is good for up to 100 shots.
Pro Three color options
There are three colors available: orange, mint and white.
Pro Beginner-friendly shooting and focus modes
It offers 3 shooting modes – an auto mode (landscape and macro focusing modes), dedicated selfie mode and a hi-key mode for extreme brightness. These 3 modes offer everything a beginner might need. The focus modes can be changed to landscape, normal or macro modes with just the touch of a button.
Pro It's very unlikely that film will disappear from the market soon
Since approximately 5 million Instax cameras were sold just in 2016, it's pretty much guaranteed that its film will be widely available for years to come.
Pro No selfie film wasting
The built-in selfie mirror makes taking self-portraits much easier, eliminating the risk of wasting film on wrongly framed guesses.
Pro Very affordable film
This camera uses the Fuji Instax Mini, which is a notably affordable instant film. A pack of Instax Mini film costs around $8 for 10 photographs, or $0.80 per shot.
Pro Many styling accessories available
As one of the most popular instant cameras on the market, it has plenty of low-cost, third party accessories available, beside the official ones offered by the manufacturer. However, most of the accessories are not directly related to photography, but are instead "styling" items such as bags, stickers, or straps.
Pro Camera status info via LCD screen
A basic LCD screen provides information regarding shots remaining and the current mode.
Pro Can be mounted on a tripod
The camera is mountable on a tripod.
Pro Stylish signature Fuji Instax design
The camera boasts the signature Fuji Instax design – rectangular with very rounded corners and a big, bulky retractable lens in the middle. Its size is relatively small (4.5" x 2.25" x 4.25") and it's available in five different colors, ranging from bright and fun colors to more low-key ones.
Pro Easy to focus selfies
The selfie mode automatically sets the lens to a close focusing distance.
Cons
Con The Leica film is expensive
Leica offers its own film for this camera, which is really expensive, costing around $2.5 per color shot or $1.5 for a black and white one. Luckily, the camera also supports the Instax Mini film, which is around three times cheaper.
Con Small image size
This camera's film actual photos are tiny: the actual image size is 1.8” × 2.4" on a 2.1” × 3.4" card.
Con Hard to find battery
The camera uses a CR2 battery standard which is less common than AA batteries and not as widely available.
Con Hard to use the shutter button when in landscape mode
The shutter button is placed a bit awkwardly and can be hard to reach when shooting in landscape mode.
Con Toyish design
Due to it's design, this camera is frequently compared to a toy camera.
Con Limited manual control
Manual control is quite limited. You just have the choice of changing between preset modes and some basic EV adjustments.
Con Small margin for exposure compensation
Exposure compensation can only be done between -⅔ and +⅔ EV, which is a small margin.
Con Flash can't be turned off
There is no option to manually turn off the flash.