TT Artisan 203T - Instax mini camera
It looks beautiful but I really hope more models are added, as Instax Mini is a bit of a let down.
TT Artisan, mostly commonly known for attainably priced lenses, is now spreading its wings and broadening its scope, this time into cameras. It has been teasing its new 203T folding camera on social media recently but, as of yet, there is no information about it on the TT Artisans site, so what is it?
At first glance it looks like an old folding 120 film camera, with a swing out door, hinged at the bottom, from which a lens and bellows system pops out. All very retro and very cool but there is one thing that seems to be putting people off, if the comments are anything to go by and that is the fact that it uses Fujifilm’s Instax film.
I can see the appeal of using a camera like this, with the beautiful styling, although I’m keen to see if it feels as good as it looks. If it isn’t a metal body then I’d be less keen as I think it would be more of a toy. That would fit with the Instax film use, which is a bit disappointing as there are loads of options for Instax cameras already.
That said, if the build quality feels good, then I would say this could just be the beginning. I don’t see why this couldn’t be the initial release in a family of cameras, including 135 and 120 format. It appears to have a mechanical shutter, so modifying the body to house the engineering for a film camera should be possible. All that is without knowing the dimensions though, so watch this space and I’ll share more once it’s out in the wild.
So far we know that it is a completely mechanical camera, with speeds up to 1/300th second and aperture range of f3.5 - f22 and it comes in four colours, black, orange, blue and red. It looks like a rangefinder, which would make sense, seeing as it has a cooke style lens but that might just be styling. I for one am quite excited by the possibilities here and hope it expands into a full family of cameras.
For more direct from the source follow them on their socials.
Price and availability
This is pre-release at time of publishing, with no details on price or availability. I’ll update this post once more is known.