Last Updated on 01/21/2025 by Chris Gampat
Typically before we receive cameras like the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo in for review, we’d take a look at the tech specs and stuff to see what’s new. But truly, I didn’t care this time around. And I also don’t think that anyone buying this camera will care either. The point is to ultimately make shooting Instax photos even more of a pleasurable experience and with no surprise, that’s what they’ve excelled at. I wasn’t sure if a camera like this could be made, but it’s got to be one of my favorites simply because of the fact that it makes the Instax Wide format so compact and like something that I’d actually want to bring around every day. Sure, I don’t have full manual controls — but there are other cameras on the market that deliver that experience already.
Holding the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo is a bit of a deja vu experience if you’ve been shooting with cameras for a very long time and have experience with a large variety of them. By that, I’m specifically talking about large format. This camera feels like a large format camera before you attach the back to it. The comes from the ring around the lens, the dials on the sides that remind me of tilting and panning knobs, and the screen on the back. If I were to put this camera on a tripod and put a cloak over my head while looking into the screen, I’d think that I was shooting with a large format camera. This, perhaps more than anything, is one of the most spectacular designs I’ve seen from Fujifilm in years.
It’s almost as if the retro camera designers from the X series and GFX series of Fujifilm escaped the digital monotony of that landscape and found refuge with Instax. And that would make sense — Instax is the Fujifilm Imaging Division’s cash cow.
After charging it up via a USB-C port on the side of the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo, I loaded it up with Instax Wide film. When it came out of the box, there was tape over the ejection port. So when the camera tried to remove the dark slide, it ended up removing the whole top of the camera. Luckily, it’s easy to snap back into place. Crazy enough, I have tons of experience repairing Instax cameras on the spot. Using them on dates is a favorite experience of mine, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to fix them on the spot.
After this, I powered up the camera and navigated through the buttons and menus. The buttons are simple enough to understand and you’ll eventually see that each dial on the side can control different things like filters, simulations, exposure control, and a bunch of other stuff that can make your photos really fun before printing.
There’s an app that you can use with it, but I didn’t bother. Typically with the Evo cameras, you can send images to the camera and print them. However, I’m pretty sick of staring at my phone all the time. I’ve taken all social media off of my phone and instead I make extra effort to be present with the people and things around me.
Scary, right? Well, the following we rewritten purposely because I wanted to escape the vernacular of relating that the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo is a distraction. If anything, the camera is a reason for me to be more engrossed with what I’m doing that I find ways to genuinely enjoy the experience.
Sometimes, that means putting the camera into the hands of my friends — who all felt that one of the nicest things about this camera is the shutter button. One friend was incredibly excited by how big the prints were. This camera is also quite a bit smaller than the Instax Wide 400 — so you’d really want to bring it everywhere with you. Granted, that camera is fully analog like the Mint RF67. The latter has full manual controls.
Would I buy the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo? Yes — but Fujifilm gave it to us to keep. Will it make me buy more Instax Film? Yes. But for convenience and portability, the Mini format is still my favorite. I think that if I were to start all over again from scratch though, the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo would be the only Instax camera I have and own.
The Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo wins Editor’s Choice and five out of five stars. Want one? Pick it up on Amazon.