But, and this is a huge but, the Sofort is, as far as I can tell, an (admittedly thorough) rebadge of the Fuji Instax mini 90. It takes the same film -- although Leica will sell you its film for around $15 for 10 shots -- has the same focal length and the same basic shape as Fuji's camera. Leica says it's reengineered the aperture system, lens and flash (it fires a little later than the mini 90), and the result is a superior product.

My experience with Instax has been at the low end of Fuji's range, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that I was impressed by the quality of the shots I took with the Sofort. I used Leica's monochrome film, and got a sharp image, with a lovely range of shades despite my subject wearing black and the background being mostly black.

I'm told that the mini 90 is a similarly strong performer, though, and that camera costs about $150 right now. So there's really one question that you should ask yourself: Are you willing to pay an extra $150 for a Leica badge and a few tweaks?

Steve Dent contributed to this report.

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