My Thoughts On The Instax Mini Evo
This camera bridges the worlds of digital and instant photo cameras - and it’s awesome. When this camera was announced nearly a year ago, I thought it would become quite the handy walk around camera. Though I feel like the X100V would be a more professional-esque option, this camera allows the user to take photos with its built in 28mm lens and print out when they choose to. That’s the key word there. Messed up your shot? No worries, it won't print out immediately afterwards like other instant cameras will. Go ahead and retake it or pick whichever photo you think turned out best. Just like previous instant film cameras made by Fujifilm, it takes its standard Instax Mini film, which has ten pieces of film to use to print on. However, you aren’t just limited to printing these shots on the film, the camera has a Micro SD Card that you can store the photos on and then remove said SD Card and transfer the photos you take onto your Laptop/Computer. A great option if you still want to use the camera but maybe you don't have paper on hand to print out the photos. I love this. This gives someone like me the ability to take this camera if I don’t want to take any other gear with me - like if it’s a small gathering or maybe a light hike in the woods.
The thing that caught my eye initially about this camera, though, was that there are built in “film simulations” (not quite like Fujifilm’s mirrorless cameras, but good enough for a camera at this price point) to switch between as well as different lens styles like fish eye or even a double exposure. Ten film simulations, ten lens effects, or a hundred different combinations to use for this camera that goes for just two hundred bucks. Wow. Oh, did I mention this can also work as just a stand alone printer? Transfer images from an app on your phone to the camera to print off if you want to.
Below are some photos I’ve taken with the Instax Mini Evo. All photos have just been through photoshop to add a border around the photo itself for my own liking. No other altering has been made to these shots.
The prints have also been super cool to see and hold. Pulling the lever on the camera feels great too, the photo then printing out the image you selected and appearing on the Instax paper. Not only does it feel nostalgic with the images from the Mini Evo, but even the photos that I shot on my X-T3 look great on these little prints.
Above: photos taken on Instax Mini Evo
Below: photos taken on the X-T3
Now, there's a lot of positives here to this camera, but what about cons? Something that isn't too big of a deal, but a slight draw back is it’s five megapixel sensor - but, come on, you aren't using this for anything (or I should say, shouldn't be) professional. So, not a super big deal, but when I upload these images to my desktop at home and it’s blown up a bit, yeah you can notice. Like I said though, this isn't for you if you’re looking for something more so on the professional side. Something I noticed while using it is that there isn’t any way to turn off the camera’s flash completely. I may be totally wrong, though I could not find anyone that has successfully accomplished this (Edit: I have seen that switching the Flash Setting to ‘suppressed flash’ has turned it off for a friend of mine, yet it does not work for my version of it so it could be user error on my part or it may just not be working for my camera - upon further investigating - it is supposed to suppress the flash entirely, hence the name, yet for mine it did not work, but that could just be my camera, so this point shouldn’t effect anyone else using this camera). So, gaffer’s tape over the flash will have to do for now. It can be a bit annoying when using it indoors and it thinks it’s super dark, and a flash just goes off, attracting a bunch of attention (Second Edit: Thanks to my friend, Al, he found the setting that can be turned off called ‘AF illuminator’ which I had overlooked - there is no issue with my camera as I previously thought. I think it’s funny that it took me so long to realize this. Thanks, Al, I appreciate you finding this setting). This camera also sports a micro USB charging port on it, which, in 2022, I cannot believe we are still using this flawed charging cable. I’m glad I purchased a warranty on it in case the port gets messed up, which I assume it inevitably will. Type C would have been incredible - I just don't know why we are still using this port still.
Other than that, no other real cons. Something I would love to see in the future but to me doesn’t count as a con is that I would love to see a viewfinder be brought to this type of camera. Personally, I am so used to looking through the viewfinder of my X-T3 or when I use an X-Pro 3 and a viewfinder on a camera like this would be a lot of fun, but of course, the price would have to go up. If it had a solid viewfinder and the price when up to $250 or $300, I would totally upgrade it. Overall though, I’m super happy with this camera being my walk around camera for fun shoots or days I just want a pocketable camera that I can casually shoot with. This, to me, feels like a great hobby camera that can also have the benefits of printing out photos whenever you want. Definitely would recommend this camera to anyone who might be looking for a printer or a (very) beginner’s camera/point and shoot camera- or both.