Some notes on modifying an Instax Mini Wide 300 with a manual lens #instaxhack

Greater control of aperture, shutter speed, and focus is the goal.

The Wide's limitations are:

-it had only two focusing points, 3m to infinity and .9m to 3m, plus a silly add-on lens for close-ups....which actually isn't too bad
-one aperture at f/14
-no control over the flash

What I want from the mod:

-better lens (got it)
-manual shutter, aperture, focus (check, check, check)
-no flash

Some mod challenges:

-the camera has a sequence to run through to take a picture

• the camera makes an exposure decision (it may have only f/14 but it had a shutter range of 1/64 to 1/200, arguably three speeds 64,125, 200, but who knows)
• it makes a decision to use the flash or not, loads the capacitor
• the shutter clicks (ahem, I am the ORIGINAL "The Shutter Goes Click" kids)
• flash fires
• a trigger is tripped to signal that the motor can run
• the motor activates the ejector (real nifty thing in the back) and the rollers
• something tells the motor to turn off ONCE the ejector returns back to its original position otherwise you could develop the second unexposed sheet

So, unless you want to guess when to stop the motor, you have to save the ejection sequence. To be honest, it's the ONLY thing you need the original camera to do.

All other function are taken over my the manual lens including guess focusing (though I plan to post how to rangefind with a paper rangefinder).