Review camera mini

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. After more than 80 hours of research and testing over the past seven years, we think the best instant camera for creating retro-cool prints is the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6. It produces the highest-quality instant photos at a reasonable price, it’s easy to use out of the box, and it offers advanced creative controls if you want to do more than just point and shoot.

The Instax Square SQ6 feels solid and durable, and it stands apart for its exceptional image quality and ease of use. The cost of its 3.4-by-2.4-inch prints have gone up to a still resonable 95¢ each recently, and while their 2.4-by-2.4-inch image area is about half an inch smaller in each dimension than classic Polaroids, the SQ6’s results look just as good, if not better. The Instax film reproduces a wider range of tones and more pleasing-looking colors than any other option currently available—including Polaroid’s revived instant film cartridges. The SQ6’s exceptionally sharp lens further improves quality, even compared with other Instax cameras, and its exposure-compensation controls and multiple-exposure mode give you options if you want to get creative.

The Instax Mini Evo is the best attempt at a hybrid instant-and-digital camera we’ve seen so far. It offers all the analog charm of an instant camera but with digital control over which images to print onto Instax Mini film using a small LCD screen. At about 70¢ per image, that’s a thrifty restraint to ensure you’ll only print your favorites. A smartphone app unlocks features that the tech savvy will have fun fiddling with, including remote shooting and printing images from a smartphone library.

If all you need is a fun toy for taking easy snapshots, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 is perfect. Its compact body feels durable, with controls that are intuitive enough for you to pass this camera off to a family member, and its 3.4-by-2.1-inch prints (with a 2.4-by-1.9-inch image area) cost only about 60¢ per print, so it won’t break the bank. But its photos aren’t as sharp or saturated as those of our main pick, it doesn’t offer as much creative control, and its batteries last for only about 100 shots, whereas our top pick promises 300 shots per set of batteries.

Also great

Fujifilm Instax Wide 300

Bigger and wider photos

The Wide 300 produces larger, wider prints at a lower price than the Instax Square SQ6 and runs on AA batteries, but the camera is quite a bit larger than most modern instant cameras and gives you fewer options.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $92.

For larger, wider-angle prints, we like the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300. Ideal for landscape and group shots, it produces 3.4-by-4.3-inch photographs (with a 2.4-by-3.9-inch image area and classic white borders) that are closer in dimensions to old-school Polaroids. Those images cost about 75¢ each, which is about 10 cents cheaper than with the Instax Square SQ6. With only one button for exposure compensation and another for flash output, you can just point and shoot, but it’s considerably bulkier than our top pick, and you get fewer creative options.

The research

• Why you should trust us
• What is an instant camera?
• Who this is for
• How we picked
• Our pick: Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6
• Upgrade pick: Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo
• Budget pick: Fujifilm Instax Mini 9
• Also great: Instax Wide 300
• The competition
• Sources

Why you should trust us

Erin Lodi is a photojournalist, a writer, and a professional photographer. She has written a few iterations of this guide over the past five years and has tried out dozens of contemporary instant cameras along the way. She’s old enough to remember shaking it like a bona fide Polaroid picture, and the oldest model in her ever-growing collection of instant cameras includes her grandfather’s Polaroid Land Camera.

Arriana Vasquez is an updates writer for Wirecutter and a photographer. Her photography ranges from studio portraits to influencer, product, and street photography. For Wirecutter she has worked on several camera related guides including the best tripod (and monopod), and best cell phone tripod.

What is an instant camera?

Instant cameras use film packs that include a negative, all the necessary chemical developers and substrates, and the positive paper required to produce the finished print. After you press the shutter, the print emerges from the camera, the development process begins, and the blank sheet turns into a color photograph within minutes. Most film packs come in bundles of 10 exposures, and most cameras have a countdown mechanism to tell you how many shots are left in the pack.

Referred to most commonly as a “Polaroid” (after the company that popularized the technology), the instant camera foreshadowed some of the convenience that digital cameras would later bring. Although digital cameras have made the instant camera obsolete in almost every way, there remains a special joy to pressing the shutter button and watching a physical print emerge from the camera and develop right before your eyes. Even for photographers who remember spending hours in the darkroom, the whole process still feels like magic. You don’t get the brilliant colors and wide range of highlights and shadows that even an entry-level digital camera can offer, but each print is a one-of-a-kind memento that you can physically pass around and share in a real-world (rather than virtual) environment.

Who this is for

The big draw of instant cameras is that they’re fun to use and provide instant photo gratification. They’re a great conversation starter, and they give you an easy way to coax even the most camera-shy subjects into posing for a portrait. Plus, kids raised in the digital camera age are often fascinated by watching a tangible instant print develop.

Instant cameras are also great for sharing with the whole family, regardless of age or photography knowhow. They’re well-suited to capturing the moment in a casual and inclusive manner, in part because the toylike appearance of instant cameras puts people at ease more than a serious-looking DSLR. The very novelty of an image that isn’t instantly posted to social media may also inspire more uninhibited poses. And in this age of digital files that are easily duplicated, there’s nothing quite like taking someone’s picture and moments later giving them the only version of it in the world.

That said, instant cameras are a decidedly retro proposition with a limited set of features. You don’t get a zoom lens. The viewfinders are tiny and less than precise at close distances, and film isn’t cheap—you’re looking at more than 50¢ for each shot you take. And you won’t see an onscreen preview of how the lighting and contrast will affect your photograph, so you can’t predict how the photo will turn out. But those shortcomings are part of what most people love about instant cameras. If you’re not interested in a camera with such limitations, a digital camera would be a better choice for you.

How we picked

In choosing cameras to test for this update, we looked for models that fit these criteria:

• Easy to use: This should be a fun camera that can be enjoyed without much instruction or a big learning curve. And although sharing much of anything is a bit taboo these days, we still believe part of the allure of an instant camera is being able to pass it around, again, without much instruction, at any social gathering.
• Reasonably priced film: No instant film is cheap, but if the price is significantly more than $1 a print, you have to get a really nice photo to warrant that kind of expense.
• Creative controls: The simple, point-and-shoot fun of instant photos is great, but better instant cameras will also let you make minor adjustments to exposures, or even make multiple exposures on a single print to keep the experience fresh.
• Decent battery life: You should never have to bring more than one set of spare batteries when you take your instant camera out for the day. We looked for cameras that are rated to let you shoot at least 100 photos with a set of batteries and gave extra points to those that were able to shoot many more than that before exhausting their power supply.

Our pick: Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6

The Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 produces the best photos we’ve seen from an instant camera and remains our top pick since late 2018. The sharp and vibrant images show a pleasing amount of detail and contrast, and they look better than the competition’s by a wide margin. Though intuitive and simple enough that anyone can start shooting with it right away, the SQ6 also has controls like exposure compensation and multiple-exposure mode if you want to get creative. And the camera body, which comes in gray, silver, and a blush gold, is as retro as the square-format prints and feels solid and durable.

If you’re old enough to remember being able to “shake it like a Polaroid picture,” the SQ6 will feel like a nostalgic delight. If your kids are new to instant cameras, the novelty of a tangible photograph in the hand will have them eagerly posing for their turn. The prints measure 2.4 inches square, smaller than the Polaroids of old but larger than the credit-card-sized Instax Minis you’ve likely encountered at one party or another.

The SQ6 creates the best photos among the instant cameras we’ve tested, with brighter colors and better detail. And the SQ6 makes reliably good images in full auto mode, so even a novice can usually capture a great shot. Though we understand that surprising results and unique variations can be part of the allure of using an instant camera, it is also true that the film isn’t exactly cheap—each exposure will set you back about 90¢—so consistent results are a big plus. That per-print price is higher than prints from the Instax Mini Evo and the Instax Mini 9 which run about 70¢ each, but is lower than the Instax Wide 300 whose exposures cost about $1.20 per—and much lower than other instant cameras in this category such as the Polaroid Now and its $2 exposure cost. Zink film can run as low as 50¢ per image, but the results are nowhere near as good as Instax prints.

In daylight or in brightly lit interiors, that auto mode results in image quality that’s consistent and mostly color-accurate—or as close as you’ll get with instant film. If you want to step out of auto mode, the SQ6 includes more options than what most other instant cameras offer. Exposure controls and the option to disable flash let you experiment with your results. You can also get more creative with macro, landscape, and double exposure modes, or use the selfie mode and mirror on the front of the camera to make sure you’ve lined up the perfect self-portrait. A standard tripod socket and self-timer allow the photographer to join group shots. The camera also includes three flash filters—orange, green, and purple—that you can pop on and off the flash to cast color over the entire image.

The SQ6’s shutter button is in a convenient location on the front of the camera, just below the small viewfinder. Photo: Michael Hession

The SQ6 feels comfortable and solid in the hand. It’s as big and square as a thick sandwich at 4.7 by 5 by 2.3 inches, with just enough area around the lens to maintain a secure grip and a design that makes it easy to find the shutter button and navigate the three control buttons. At 14 ounces it weighs about as much as a football, light enough to wear around using the included camera strap and still portable enough to fit into a handbag. The viewfinder is small, though we found most of our photos hit the mark when trying to center subjects. A mechanical counter on the back displays how many exposures remain.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Although the Fujifilm Instax Mini film that our budget pick uses is readily available in most camera shops and drugstores, the newer Fujifilm Instax Square used by the SQ6 can be more difficult to find. It’s also more expensive—about 85¢ per print, versus 60¢ for the mini size.

The Instax Square SQ6 runs on CR2 batteries rather than a rechargeable battery like that of our previous top pick (the Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic). However, a pair of CR2s will last three times as long as a single charge of the Mini 90’s battery: 300 shots versus 100.

The SQ6 is square and a bit bulky, like the Instagram logo come to life. It’s noticeably larger and heavier than our previous pick, but it’s still small enough to carry around at a party or to squeeze into a handbag.

The colored flash filters feel gimmicky. In auto mode, they add a unique hue but also make images darker and blurry. At nearly a dollar per exposure, we didn’t find the effect is worth the experiment.

Upgrade pick: Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo

The Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo combines the fun of an analog instant camera (tangible prints) with some advantages of a digital camera (a review screen, filters, discretionary printing) in a tiny, portable package.

It’s easy enough to start shooting, reviewing, and printing images with the LiPlay without ever peeking at the instruction manual, so even the most novice user should be able to produce shots immediately. (Even though the ergonomics of the camera are a bit awkward, like some other Instax cameras, the LiPlay makes more sense in portrait rather than landscape mode, or you’re forced to use your left forefinger to trigger the shutter button, which feels more unnatural than it sounds.) With a sleek, solid build and roughly the size of a standard point-and-shoot camera, the LiPlay also looks like it could withstand a drop or two, and though we wouldn’t hesitate tossing it into a bag, it’s also small enough to fit most coat pockets.

The LiPlay prints clear, vibrant images onto Instax Mini Instant Film. Running about 60¢ each exposure, it’s the least expensive Instax film, but being able to select which images to print feels delightfully frugal, especially if the camera is in the hands of a trigger-happy shooter. Conversely and unlike our top pick, which can print only one fleeting moment at a time, you can print out a favorite image over and over again.

A half press of the shutter button employs AE/AF lock, and a green square indicates focus on a small LCD screen. You can nondestructively add filters and frames or zoom into an image before printing, though that’s about the extent of post in-camera editing on the LiPlay. You can also play with exposure compensation before snapping a shot, and the Autofocus Illuminator helps the camera find focus in low-light settings.

You can unlock more features using the slick Instax Mini Evo app, from printing images through your smartphone to remote shooting using your phone to customizing three shortcut buttons on the camera. The Evo will store about 45 images in its internal memory, but an additional microSD slot allows for far more storage and also means you could transfer the images from the camera onto your computer and then to all your social media platforms. The built-in battery is rated to last about 100 shots per charge.

Around the lens of the camera is a rotating dial that lets you apply lens effects, like vignette, fish eye, and double exposure. On the top of the camera there’s another dial that will add film effects that alter the colors of the image, like vivid to make colors more punchy, or sepia to give the image a warm tint.

As you rotate the dial a preview of the effect is shown on the back screen of the camera so you know what the image will look like before you take it. You can add both a lens and film effect to the same image which can lead to some fun and interesting combinations.

Budget pick: Fujifilm Instax Mini 9

The photos generated by the Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 aren’t the best you’ll get out of the cameras we tested, and the camera itself doesn’t offer as many creative options as the Instax Square SQ6. But if you’re not seeking high dynamic range and sharp detail from the family barbecue party pics, the Mini 9 is smaller and more fun to pass around, and its results will be good enough to commemorate such casual occasions. Plus, at 3.4 by 2.1 inches (with borders) the photos are just a tad smaller than a credit card, making them perfect for toting around in your wallet. And both the camera and film refills (about 60¢ per shot compared with about 85¢ per shot) are less expensive than with our top pick.

You won’t find much in the way of creative controls beyond a bit of exposure compensation and a macro lens attachment, but the Mini 9 does have a selfie mirror. We also recommend the Mini 9 as a solid choice for an inexpensive instant camera for kids: It’s built to withstand the occasional drop, and it comes in four bright colors. It’s a little tricky to turn on, but once you find the lens release/power button, it’s ready to hand off to someone else without instruction.

The Mini 9 runs on two AA batteries that will last about 100 shots—likely long enough to serve through a few shooting sessions if you’re not too trigger happy.

Also great: Instax Wide 300

Also great

Fujifilm Instax Wide 300

Bigger and wider photos

The Wide 300 produces larger, wider prints at a lower price than the Instax Square SQ6 and runs on AA batteries, but the camera is quite a bit larger than most modern instant cameras and gives you fewer options.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $92.

We recommend the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 if you prefer larger (3.4-by-4.3-inch) prints and don’t need extra controls such as exposure compensation. The prints don’t look as good as our top pick’s, and the Instax Wide 300 is substantially larger and heavier than the Instax Square SQ6, but Instax Wide Instant Film is slightly less expensive at about 75¢ per exposure.

Although the Instax Wide 300 makes larger prints than our top pick, its image quality is not as good as that of the Instax Square SQ6, which delivers more vibrant colors and better contrast. Bigger can be more important, however, when you’re passing photos around at a small get-together: People love the larger size, and we’ve noticed that most dinner guests are rarely concerned about saturation or sharpness. The Instax Wide 300’s photos even feel a bit more nostalgic because of this effect—perhaps more akin to the original Polaroid experience in both size and unpredictability.

The Instax Wide 300 offers only two control buttons to fiddle with: exposure and flash output. Photo: Michael Hession

There’s not much to control on the Instax Wide 300: just two back buttons that allow you to fiddle with exposure compensation and turn on the fill flash (but not disable the flash entirely), respectively. A sizable grip gives you plenty to hold onto, but the camera feels too clunky to tote around all night by its thin strap. A built-in tripod socket can help with stability in low light and allow you to leave the camera on a tripod for a photo booth, but because the camera lacks a timer, you’ll have to leave someone in charge of pressing the shutter button.

The Instax Wide 300 runs on four AA batteries that are easy and inexpensive to replace (and there’s no reason you can’t use rechargeable AAs). Fujifilm Instax Wide Instant Film is harder to find at the corner drugstore, but a two-pack of 10 exposure cartridges costs about $15 (or 75¢ per print) online.

As professional photographer Jessica Zollman told us, “I went for the Wide for its larger images that capture more from the scene and resemble the size of an original Polaroid more closely. If you carry around a bag often, or don’t mind just throwing a conversation-starter camera over your shoulder before you head out, the Wide is absolutely perfect.”

The competition

Fujifilm dominates the instant-camera field, and we’ve looked at nearly every Instax model the company has ever released.

The Instax Square SQ1 may seem to be a newer version of our pick, the SQ6, but it lacks all the camera modes (like macro or landscape), making it functionally closer to a point-and-shoot like our budget pick but using square film instead of rectangular. While it might be easier to hold with the new grip design, it’s about $30 more than our pick (with fewer features) and twice as much as our budget pick.

We’ve looked at just about every Instax Mini since the first iteration of this guide in 2013, including past pick the Instax Mini 50S, the Instax Mini 70, the Instax Mini 11. and the most recently the Mini 40. Our current picks offer the best in image quality, usability, and value compared with other Instax cameras we’ve considered.

The Polaroid Now is the best we’ve seen yet from the company again known as Polaroid (née Polaroid Originals née Impossible Project). A pared down version of previous attempts the OneStep+ and the OneStep 2, the Polaroid Now succeeds in analog simplicity, offering only the most basic controls plus a self-timer button and double exposure mode. But however much this revival pulled at our heartstrings with its nostalgic clunky shape and big red shutter button, the photographic results were unpredictable. That’s been our complaint with each iteration of these new Polaroid cameras, and at $2 per exposure, getting often blurry and over- or underexposed prints feels frustrating. The new Polaroid film also needs to be shaded from light for 15 minutes as it develops-—so forget shaking it like a Polaroid picture. The camera spits out a thin black shield of plastic over the image as it emerges from the camera, a design that makes this camera a bit nerve-racking to share with the worry that someone may tear the shield off inadvertently or waste that precious i-Type film by being impatient. You also won’t know if you’ve got a decent shot until those 15 minutes are up, and the likelihood of recapturing that decisive moment again is slim.

Vintage Polaroid cameras, such as the beautiful SX-70, need to use old Polaroid film (if you can find it—the production of real Polaroid film ended in 2008) or versions now being made by the new Polaroid. Photographers we’ve talked to have also found this film to be unreliable with questionable long-term storage results. Some Polaroid Land cameras, such as the 200 model, can accept sheets of Fujifilm’s Instax film. But these cameras are large and relatively expensive, and the steps required to load Instax film into them are not for the faint of heart.

Zink prints have disqualified quite a few other cameras and printers in this category: Kodak’s Printomatic and Pop; Polaroid’s Z2300, Snap, Snap Touch, Zip Mobile Printer, and the Socialmatic; Lifeprint; and HP’s Sprocket camera and printer. The 2-by-3-inch prints had low contrast and low quality regardless of which device we used.

Kodak has also tried its own 4Pass Photo Paper in both the Mini Shot and the Kodak Photo Print 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. As yellow, magenta. and cyan colors are added, the print emerges and retreats from the device. The wide angle of the Mini Shot camera also distorted our images for some unflattering results.

Lomography’s latest Diana Instant Square makes use of our current favorite Instax Square Instant Film in a nostalgic remake of the classic Diana plastic camera body, but without the consistent results of our top pick, according to reviewers we trust.

Lomography’s Lomo’Instant Automat series cameras definitely look cool, and they use Fujifilm’s readily available and reasonably priced Instax Mini film packs. Features such as endless multiple exposures are interesting, but controls are marked with difficult-to-decipher hieroglyphic symbols. Aimed at the advanced instant shooter, most of the cameras in this series are bundled with fish-eye, wide-angle and close-up lens attachments, which we found more cumbersome than useful. We think you’ll have more fun and make more consistently better images with our top pick, at a lower price.

Lomography’s Lomo’Instant Wide cameras are designed to shoot on Fujifilm’s Instax Wide film. They have the same three shooting modes as the Lomo’Instant, plus a shutter remote in the lens cap. Our big problem with the Lomo’Instant series is its clunky controls and strange layout, and the Lomo’Instant Wide offers more of the same, making this series an easy dismissal.

Famed luxury camera brand Leica dipped its toe into instant cameras with the Leica Sofort. While the Sofort’s price tag has fewer zeroes than we’ve seen on some other Leica gear, it still costs far more than most other instant cameras. Considering that the Sofort is similar to other Instax models in specs and features and uses the same Instax mini film, we don’t think the Leica red dot justifies the price.

While the Mint InstantFlex TL70 may be the coolest instant camera we’ve ever seen (Twin-lens reflex! Manual focus!), nearly $400 is too much to pay—plus it makes the camera too expensive to be passed around at a party, which takes away from the instant fun. It has also gotten criticism from DPReview for poor build quality.

Sources

1. James Artaius, Gavin Stoker, The best instant cameras in 2020 — from best instax to best Polaroid cameras, Digital Camera World, April 15, 2020

2. Tom Morgan, Amy Davies, Best instant camera 2020: the 10 best retro cameras for instant fun, TechRadar, April 6, 2020

3. Daven Mathies and Hillary K. Grigonis, The best instant cameras for 2020, Digitaltrends.com, May 15, 2020