The Ryan Heise Collection

I just got back from three weeks vacation in Macau, Hong Kong, and Beijing, with a few other brief stops in mainland China.

I opted not to bring my trusty Nikon D90 — a camera I’ve owned and loved since it’s launch in 2008 — due to its size, and also failed to heed my own recommendation of a Sony NEX-5n, namely because I’m confident the NEX-F5 will be announced shortly.¹

Instead, I opted to shoot with only my iPhone (I took about 300 shots total) and, actually heeding some great advice, an Instax Mini 50s. I shot 40 exposures on the Instax, and these are my favourite.

These cameras are so much fun, and asking passersby to take a shot of me and my friends was always a great experience. People love the satisfaction of seeing a print slide out immediately. Almost everyone would hang around for 30 seconds to see the exposure.

The Instax Wide 210 is comically big, but it does make big, bright photos. The Mini is much nicer to toss in a bag for sight seeing, and the credit-card-sized photos make for great one-offs of travel memories, even if the end product isn’t as consistent as its wide counterparts. My plan is to give these away with brief stories to friends and family instead of meaningless, shitty tchotchkes bought in markets.

_{1. While I’m happy with a lot of my iPhone and Instax photos, I regret not getting an NEX-5n because something better is probably on the horizon. Something better is always on the horizon. Stupid of me. I had to resist buying one almost daily in China. Only regret of this trip.}