An afternoon with the Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo

 

(Shots from camera)

Several weeks ago, I was thinking of upgrading my Panasonic LX7 (2012!!!) to something more modern for an upcoming trip to europe, but after checking out the prices of modern point and shoots, I really couldn't justify the asking price - I rarely do photography these days unless I'm travelling, and my day to day photo needs are mostly sorted with my phone's camera. 

I then though perhaps I should bring a "fun" camera instead to capture moments with friends and ex-colleagues, and decided hey, why not a polaroid camera?!

And after looking up various instant cameras, I landed on this, the Instax Mini Evo. Let me share my experience using it today.

First, this camera is just under 300cad (with tax, including a 10 pack of "film"). Pretty no frills packaging (thank you Fuji!), USB cable, manual, strap and camera. I wish they would have included a screen protector and a lens cap though. Charging is done by an archaic micro usb connector, and supposedly only takes several hours to fully charge the built-in battery.

Now Fuji sells several type of Instax cameras, "analog" camera where the instant film is exposed using the lens, and "hybrids" like the evo, which is a fusion of a digital camera and instant film printer. I choose the later as I liked the idea of printing only those shots that looked good, and being a digital camera I could have a digital copy to backup. 

One of the main gimmicks of this toy is the 10 "lenses" and 10 "film looks" you can choose while out shooting. The lenses give you effects such as fisheye, double exposure, soft focus, vignetting etc. The film looks give you tonal changes like more vivid colours, sepia, monochrome, or retro tones. 

My impressions using the camera to take photos are actually quite poor:

• The screen is barely visible in daylight.
• Can't really tell if things are in focus on the screen.
• Deleting a photo was a multi step process, and the delete photo functionality was shared with the "delete all" functionality. 
• No grip, I found it pretty fiddly to shoot with.
• UI operates in portrait mode, and generally not the most intuitive control scheme.
• Saving a photo takes several seconds (this was with the built-in memory)

Other complaints I have about it, but it's stupid to complain about, given the camera's price point:

• Only one autofocus point
• No hot shoe
• Tripod mount, which I probably won't use, is made of plastic
• Faux leather is really just plastic
• Camera's light weight makes it feel cheap
• Built-in battery
• No image stabilization
• Does not record stereo 8k raw video

After a few hours out in Vancouver, I was like... am I wasting money on this toy camera? 

Spoiler: No.

Once I got home, I loaded up the "film", and proceeded to print my first shot. The gimmick with this camera is that what looks like a film advance lever on the body, engages the printing. Which is unbelievably tactile. 

(Shot using my phone, printed using the Evo through the app)

The first picture looked like crap after the first few seconds, and I was like.... damn, this is a waste of money. What is this low contrast BS. But no, it was me being too rushed. After a minute or so, the blacks fully sat in, and the colours saturated to their limit. I was pretty blown away. It looked really good! I printed a few more shots and I think I will not be bringing my lx7 on my trip.

My phone probably takes technically better photos, but having a printed photo in just minutes is just magical. Another reason I choose this camera over the analog instax is the focal length of the lens - this baby is 28mm. A bit wider than I'd like - 40mm for street shooting please - compared to 60mm on say, the Instax Mini 11 which is much longer than I'd like. 28mm is what I used to use on my Ricoh GR1, a pretty difficult focal length to use - you definitely want to be up close with your subject to fill the frame. But it's super rewarding to get the shot. (The 60mm lens is actually 35mm equivalent. A much better daily lens imo)

The camera also comes with an accompanying app that allows you to send photos from your phone to be printed. The details and dynamic range of the photos printed this way are better, though you'll need to apply any fun effects beforehand as I didn't see any on the app.

I'm really looking forward to using this camera with my friends - usually it takes me weeks before anyone gets pictures from me as I don't have a computer to process raws. This evo makes giving a physical gift of a photograph possibly in minutes, and I can't wait to see how it works out in a few weeks.