Instant-print cameras are flat-out fun. For the past few years, showing up to a party or a get-together at the bar with a Polaroid (or Polaroid-like instant-print camera) has been a surefire way to become the most popular person in the room (at least until the film runs out).
Most instant-print cameras are analog. You know the drill. Stare through the hole, push the button, and the print emerges. Everybody finds out together whether it’s any good after it develops over the next few minutes.
Sometimes people blow on it or shake it, which does absolutely nothing, but hey, that’s fine. It’s kind of fun and harmless, all the same. You can do it too with the Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo ($217).
This is a digital camera that prints physical pictures, just like a Polaroid.
fun above format
As one of the few digital instant-print cameras on the market, the Instax Mini EVO has a surprisingly large three-inch screen for checking your picture before you hit the print button. It gives you the chance to retake the shot if it isn’t right.
There are 10 lens effects and 10 film effects (which function like filters), allowing you to have more control over the final product than a typical instant-print camera. I took an Instax Mini Evo around the streets and tried out a variety of film effects.
Some did a decent job at drawing out the vibrant colors of a tequila advertisement into an otherworldly melange. Other filters gave an ’80s BMW an appropriately washed-out, almost pastel-like spread of colors. But keep in mind that this is a $217 camera. Archival image quality, these are not.
That doesn’t matter, though, because the focus with the Instax Mini Evo is on having fun handing two of your closest friends a real, actual, IRL, 2×3″ photo of them in the moment—not in nailing the finest image quality with a killer sensor/lens combo.
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