Instax Mini Evo Instant Film Camera Review

[Ken Reels]

Ihave an affinity for the tangible that probably betrays my age more than anything, but nowhere does this hit me as hard as in photography. I love photo prints. I love photo books. I love instant images like Fujifilm's Instax prints. Thank goodness for Fujifilm, which stepped in to save instant film when Polaroid dropped the ball at the beginning of the digital era.

Since then, Fujifilm has turned out an array of Instax cameras and printers and I have been a sucker for nearly all of them. I still have the original SP-2 and SP-3 printers and use them all the time. The company's latest effort in this realm is the Instax Mini 12, which is the latest version of what I'd call the cheapest fun camera you can buy. It's an adorable little bubble of plastic and is the best way to get started with Instax.

The Mini 12 replaces the Mini 11 and changes a couple of small things that turn out to be quite a big deal. The first is that Fujifilm has made parallax correction work in close-up mode (enabled by twisting the lens to close up). That correction means you don't have to guess where the center of the frame is for close-up subjects. What you see is what you get now, eliminating those terrible, ill-framed close-ups that sometimes happened with the Mini 11.

I also really like the new twist lens. This is both how you get into the close-up mode, and how you turn the camera on. I'll confess I had to consult the manual the first time to figure this out (after pressing the shutter button a dozen different ways), but once the dim little light bulb in my brain started working again, I came to appreciate a design that makes it virtually impossible to turn this thing on by accident.

Other upgrades include a new automatic flash control that detects brightness levels and only fires when needed. That's a step up from the Mini 11, which fires the flash for every photo. That said, the Mini 12 fired the flash far more than I would have liked, but perhaps my dream of a good low-light Instax camera is just that. Whatever the case, the Mini 12 is certainly an improvement when it comes to flash handling.

Some things remain the same. The lens is still a 2-element plastic lens (60-mm f/12 equivalent). There is no focusing. Everything is auto-exposure. If this camera had a motto it would be: Keep it simple. There's also still the little mirror on the front for framing your selfies.

To go along with the Mini 12, Fujifilm has released a new free app called Instax Up. The key function is that it will "scan" (um, photograph) your Instax prints, allowing you to store and share them online. If you have photos in any other Instax apps, you can import them to Instax Up so everything is in one place.

Once an image is in the app you can edit it with a few simple controls, add notes, and even geotag it using a map. If you amass a sizable collection of scans, you can filter and search by Instax film type, date scanned, or any tags you've added. You can also share the image with any other app on your phone.

So yes, now you can post even your Instax selfies on Instagram. So much for the tangible. I get it, I get it. I am old and curmudgeonly. Fujifilm no doubt has a boatload of market research to prove the intelligence of this move. I, personally, deleted the app as soon as I had proved to myself that it worked as advertised.

In my world, Instax prints are something you stick on the wall, with tape. And they stay there until the sun bleaches those moments back to nothing, leaving only the cool darkness of evening and those moments we etched in our minds. Whatever the case, the Mini 12 is the cheapest, easiest way to enter the Instax world and it remains my top pick for anyone who wants a dead simple, affordable, and incredibly fun instant camera.

Back when I was a kid, my family had a Polaroid camera, which we often used to capture memorable moments. Christmas, birthdays, and vacations were all made permanent on instant film. My dad had a 35mm SLR that he used sometimes, but when you look through the old picture books from my adolescence, a large percentage of the photos are Polaroids. My childhood was captured on instant film.

I agree! I think Ansel would agree, too.

I own several Polaroid cameras, but unfortunately only one works (that you can still find film for), it uses 600, but the results are awful, unfortunately.

Instant cameras embody the magic of photography: With the press of a shutter button, you can capture the world around you and see tangible results in seconds. For high-quality, retro-cool prints at a reasonable price, we think the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ40 is a great choice.

Arriana Vasquez is a senior updates writer for Wirecutter and a professional photographer. Her photography ranges from studio portraits to influencer, product, and street photography. She has worked on several camera-related guides for Wirecutter, including the best instant photo printer, the best tripod, and the best cell-phone tripod.

While capturing hundreds of instant photos, we took note of whether our friends and family could easily figure out how to use the camera. We also got their opinions on the image quality to supplement our own (and perhaps more critical) assessment.

The film is easy to find. Film refills for the Mini 12 are sold just about everywhere. And at 3.4 by 2.1 inches (including borders, which surround a 2-by-2.5-inch image area), the photos you get from this camera are just a tad smaller than a credit card, making them perfect for toting around in your wallet. Prints from the Mini 12 are just as creamy and filmlike as those from our top pick, though not as sharp as those from our upgrade pick.

On the top of the camera, another dial adds film effects that alter the colors of the image. For example, the Vivid setting makes colors more punchy, while Sepia gives photos a warm tint. The back screen previews these effects as you add them.

You can choose which images to print. Unlike most other instant cameras, you can choose which images to print or print a favorite image over and over again. Our top and budget picks are true instant cameras, meaning they print just one fleeting moment at a time.

The Instax Mini Evo app has lots of features. You can transfer photos from the camera onto your phone via the free app (Android, iOS), and from there, post them to all your social media platforms. The app also lets you print images stored on your smartphone, use your phone as a remote control, and customize three physical shortcut buttons on the camera.

We are currently testing the latest instant camera from Fujifilm, the Instax Mini 99. We plan to try out all the new features, including brightness control, the ability to select focus zones, and color effects.

We're also preparing to test several other models. The NONS SL660 is an SLR camera with interchangeable lenses, and the InstantFlex TL70 Plus is a twin-lens camera. Both of these models are compatible with Fujifilm Instax Square Film. Additionally, we'll be exploring the InstantKon RF70, which uses Instax Wide film.

Lastly we're planning to test the Kodak Mini Shot 3 Retro, a hybrid instant camera that captures digital images and prints them as framed or frameless 3-by-3-inch Polaroid-style photos. It also features a companion app that lets you add stickers and frames to photos, or correct blemishes before printing.

The Polaroid I-2 Instant Camera has a premium build and is fun to use, but our results were mixed. We liked that it was easy to adjust settings, and switching from full auto to manual is as easy as pressing one button a few times. A light meter in the viewfinder is intended to help you make sure your images are properly exposed, and it was easy to dial in the settings. But images from our testing were inconsistent, with some shots coming out overexposed even when the meter indicated proper exposure. Other shots came out oddly cropped or out of focus, despite using the built-in parallax guide (for close-up shots) or half-press focus lock.

Kodak has also tried its own 4Pass Photo Paper in both the Mini Shot and the Kodak Photo Printer Mini 2. While the credit-card-sized prints (which are also stickers) are sharp and vibrant, the process is slow, and the final output is missing some of the nostalgic softness of an Instax print that harkens back to Polaroids of old. The wide angle of the Mini Shot camera also distorted our images for some unflattering results.

Arriana Vasquez is a senior updates writer for powering, home office, cameras, and hobbies at Wirecutter. Her hobbies include reading and photography. Her photos have won several awards in various online competitions, and she is the producer and co-host of Old Books Podcast.

Speaking of batteries, the Mini 12 takes two AA batteries. Heck yeah. I absolutely love when film cameras use easily removable batteries in standard sizes. No weird CR2 batts here, just easily sourced AAs.

Just keep in mind you should never, ever leave alkalines in your camera when not using it. Most people will not use their instant film cameras often enough to catch a leaking battery, and alkaline batteries will always leak eventually if not regularly discharged.

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Whoever decided to cancel production at Polaroid should be banging their head on a table, because while they assumed the future was exclusively digital, Fuji steadfastly supported their instant film format through the 2000s and into the 2010s. As digital took over the consumer space, something funny happened. People grew nostalgic for the instant photography of old, and when they found Polaroid had essentially disappeared, they turned to the next best thing, something they probably had never used before even though it had been around all along: Fuji Instax film.

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