Camera Rant: Why I love my Diana Mini!

This little piece of plastic might look like it can't do much but really it packs such a punch.
If you are familiar with it's predecessor the Diana F+ you know that the magic to these cameras is in the plastic lens. Luckily with the Diana Mini you are not sacrificing too much in the size.
The Mini keeps the plastic lens to still give you those soft focus images and eventhough it shoots in 35mm format ( a feature I find to be a million times more convenient) it still gives you the square image that the Diana is famous for. Since the Mini cannot be made into a pinhole, the lens doesn't come off like the regular Diana, it does give you the option of shooting half frame. So on a 36 exposure roll you can shoot 72 pictures, and you don't have to stay committed to half frame through out your whole roll you can actually go back and forth. This is my favorite feature since for years I had been trying to get my hands on an Olympus Pen an older camera that had that feature back in the day. Then I found the golden half a camera made by superheadz that seemed to do what the Pen did but lacked in the picture quality.The Mini does everything the golden half does and more. I also must rave about the panoramic options you have with it, it's really what I have been experimenting with and so far so good. I must end this by talking about the focusing. I have never been good at judging focusing on meters but I feel that with the Diana Mini it's a little more forgiving. I tend to always get a good shot.

Here are some shots I have taken so far with the Mini