Fuji Instax Wide and Mini, dual film camera- how to hack the Instax Wide.

When you have the D.I.Y. Bug, sometimes you do things just to see if they will work. No true major goal, just will it work. I do a lot of that. Do things wrong, do things backwards, see what happens. As a painter, sculptor, and photographer, I love to push the medium. I like things a bit messy. When it comes to the mechanics of a camera, I like to see what else I can get from it. The camera is just interpreting reflected light, and I like to see if there are any fun ways to make it less literal, maybe more poetic. I also just like hacking stuff.

Fuji has two types of integral film for their instant camera line, Instax Wide and Instax Mini. A third type is on it's way- Instax Square. I just came up with a simple hack that makes the Instax Wide 210, and possibly other Fuji wide cameras accept all three packs. The mini is just simply a wide cut in half. The square, according to the news on this product, will just be a square a bit bigger than the mini(but no taller). So all three types should fit into the cartridge holder and likely will use the same eject engineering. The mini and wide already do, we will see about the square. 

Do not try this on a camera that you are not willing to break- there is a reason I called it a hack!

This hack is super simple. Slide out the pressure bars in the back of the film door. Be careful not to lose the spring. Cut an inch out of the center of the bar and then cut an inch out of the center of the mounting portion of the bar, but be sure to keep the backing that slides into the door. Experiment with empty packs of both the mini and the wide to get an idea of clearance necessary. Tape the open ends, and put the pressure bars back in the door.

Now you have an Instax Wide camera that can shoot both wide and mini (and most likely square). Why? I don't know. Maybe you only want to carry one camera. Maybe you just want to get messy and do things wrong, do things backwards.