Instant cameras and film: what to buy together

Instant cameras are sold almost empty. Some ship with a starter pack of ten shots, many ship with none at all, and the pack that does come in the box is gone inside an afternoon. So the camera is only half the purchase. The other half is choosing the right film, buying enough of it, and knowing that you will be buying it again.

This page is the lookup for that second half. It names the one film each current camera takes, shows what fits what across the brands, says how many packs to buy alongside the camera, and puts a number on the first year. If you only want the format lookup, which instax film do I need is the shorter page. If you only want the costs ranked, that is every format compared on cost.

#	Product	Best for	Cost per shot	Price
1	Fujifilm instax mini 12The cheapest film in production, in the most places, in the camera that is hardest to get wrong.	The safest camera-and-film pairing	$0.85	Check price
2	Fujifilm instax WIDE 400Twice the print width for about 25 cents more a shot — the honest answer when a mini print feels too small.	Buy this pairing if the photos have people in them	$1.10	Check price
3	Polaroid Now Generation 3The photograph everyone pictures, at the highest running cost on this site outside SX-70 film.	The pairing to buy only if the square print is the point	$2.37	Check price
4	Kodak Mini Shot 2 RetroAbout 42 cents a print, and a screen so you never pay for a frame you did not want.	The cheapest pairing to run	$0.42	Check price
5	Fujifilm instax mini EvoReal instax mini film, but you choose which frames get spent — which is worth more than it sounds.	The pairing that wastes the least film	$0.85	Check price

The one rule: a camera takes exactly one film

There is no universal instant film. Every camera in this category is built around a single format for its entire working life, and the formats are physically different sizes with different chemistry. A pack of the wrong format will not load, and if it did load it would not develop. This is the opposite of the digital world, where any SD card fits any camera.

That has one practical consequence worth more than any specification: when you choose the camera you are also choosing a running cost you cannot change later. A Polaroid owner cannot switch to cheaper film. They can only take fewer photographs.

The compatibility table: which film goes with which camera

Read this as a shopping list. Find the camera, buy the film in the second column, and nothing else in the table will work in it.

One row there is new enough to catch people out. The instax WIDE Evo is Fujifilm's first WIDE-format hybrid and takes exactly the same film as the much cheaper WIDE 400, so the film column does not change — our instax WIDE Evo review sets out what the extra money actually buys.

What each pairing costs to run

The film price is the number that decides whether a camera gets used or put in a drawer. Here is every format at the prices we verified, cheapest per shot first.

Three things in that table surprise people. instax mini is less than two thirds the cost of Polaroid Go, which is Polaroid's own budget format. instax WIDE costs less per shot than instax SQUARE despite a much bigger picture. And the Kodak 4PASS cartridges undercut every real instant film, because they are not film at all — they are dye-sublimation prints of digital photographs.

The five pairings we would actually buy

Each of these is a camera and the one film that goes with it, chosen for a different buyer. Every entry names what the film costs per shot and who should not buy it, because a pairing with no downside is not a recommendation.

1. The safest camera-and-film pairing

Fujifilm instax mini 12

The cheapest film in production, in the most places, in the camera that is hardest to get wrong.

Buy it for

Anyone buying for someone else, and anyone who wants the recipient to be able to replace film without a special trip.

Skip it if

Someone who wants the big square Polaroid print. A mini print is 2.4 x 1.8 inches, which is business-card size.

• •Takes **instax mini**, about **85 cents a shot** from a $16.99 twenty-exposure twin pack.
• •**20 exposures per pack** against Polaroid's 8 — the single biggest difference in how long a gift lasts.
• •Runs on **two AA batteries**, so there is no charger to lose and no dead battery on a trip.
• •Film develops in about **90 seconds**, not the 10 to 15 minutes every Polaroid film takes.
• •The same film fits the mini 13, mini 41, mini 99, mini Evo and the mini Link 3 printer, so a spare pack is never wasted.

Running cost: instax mini works out at $0.85 a shot. See every format’s cost.

Engadget, which publishes hands-on reviews, calls it “a basic instant camera ideal for newbies that lets you get started shooting”.

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2. Buy this pairing if the photos have people in them

Fujifilm instax WIDE 400

Twice the print width for about 25 cents more a shot — the honest answer when a mini print feels too small.

Buy it for

Group shots, weddings, guest books, anything where more than two faces have to fit.

Skip it if

A pocket. This is a big camera, and WIDE film is harder to find on a shelf than mini.

• •Takes **instax WIDE**, about **$1.10 a shot** from a $21.99 twenty-exposure pack.
• •The print is **3.9 x 2.4 inches** — roughly twice the area of a mini for about 30% more per shot.
• •**20 exposures a pack**, the same count as mini, so the pack arithmetic does not change.
• •The same WIDE film feeds the instax Link WIDE 2 printer and the WIDE Evo.
• •Runs on **four AA batteries** — again, no proprietary charger.

Running cost: instax WIDE works out at $1.10 a shot. See every format’s cost.

Engadget, which publishes hands-on reviews, calls it “simple operation”.

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3. The pairing to buy only if the square print is the point

Polaroid Now Generation 3

The photograph everyone pictures, at the highest running cost on this site outside SX-70 film.

Buy it for

Someone who asked for a Polaroid by name and will not be satisfied by anything else.

Skip it if

A heavy shooter, a child, or anyone on a budget. Eight shots a pack at about $2.37 each adds up alarmingly fast.

• •Takes **Polaroid i-Type**, about **$2.37 a shot** from an $18.99 pack of eight.
• •**Only 8 exposures a pack** — the number that catches most gift buyers out.
• •The print is **4.2 x 3.5 inches**, far bigger than any instax, with the white frame people recognize.
• •Film takes **10 to 15 minutes** to develop and needs shielding from light while it does.
• •i-Type packs carry no battery because the camera has its own, which is why **600 film costs about $2 more for the same photograph**.

Running cost: Polaroid i-Type works out at $2.37 a shot, so a hundred photographs in the first year puts the real total at about $366.86 including the camera. See every format’s cost.

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4. The cheapest pairing to run

Kodak Mini Shot 2 Retro

About 42 cents a print, and a screen so you never pay for a frame you did not want.

Buy it for

Anyone who will make photographs regularly rather than occasionally, and anyone buying for a household that will get through media.

Skip it if

Someone who wants real instant film. This is a digital camera with a dye-sublimation printer attached — no chemistry, no shaking, no surprise.

• •Takes **Kodak 4PASS cartridges**, about **42 cents a print** from a $24.99 cartridge of 60.
• •The cartridge is **all-in-one** — ribbon and paper together, so there is nothing else to buy.
• •**A 1.7 inch screen** before the print, so a blink or a thumb over the lens costs nothing.
• •Prints come out **dry and laminated**, which instant film does not.
• •It doubles as a phone printer over Bluetooth or USB-C.

Running cost: Kodak 4PASS 2.1 x 3.4 works out at $0.42 a shot, so a hundred photographs in the first year puts the real total at about $179.97 including the camera. See every format’s cost.

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5. The pairing that wastes the least film

Fujifilm instax mini Evo

Real instax mini film, but you choose which frames get spent — which is worth more than it sounds.

Buy it for

Someone who wants instant film and hates waste, and anyone printing photographs already on a phone.

Skip it if

A gift buyer on a tight budget, or anyone who wants the point-and-pray simplicity of a mini 12.

• •Takes **instax mini**, the same **85-cent** film as the cheapest camera on this list.
• •**A 3 inch screen** means a pack of 20 becomes 20 photographs you wanted, not 20 attempts.
• •**100 effect combinations** from 10 lens and 10 film effects.
• •Prints from a phone over Bluetooth, so it replaces a separate pocket printer.
• •About **100 prints per charge** on a built-in battery.

Running cost: instax mini works out at $0.85 a shot. See every format’s cost.

Engadget, which publishes hands-on reviews, calls it “marries the vintage charm of instant photography with digital shooting”.

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How many packs to buy with the camera

Buying one pack with a new camera is the standard mistake. A first outing with an instant camera is not a measured affair — everyone present wants a go, and ten exposures disappear in under an hour. Here is what we would put in the basket, by what the camera is actually for.

The Polaroid column is the argument. Eight exposures a pack means a wedding guest book on Polaroid film is a four-figure film bill before anyone has photographed anything — the arithmetic is worked through in how much film do you need for a wedding. For a shot count of your own, how much instant film do I need turns any number into packs and dollars.

The first-year bill, camera plus film

The camera is a one-off. The film is not. At realistic shooting rates the film overtakes the camera inside the first year on almost every model in this category, and on a Polaroid it overtakes it in a few months.

This is the single most useful thing to understand before buying. A cheaper camera with expensive film costs more than a dearer camera with cheap film, inside a year, at any realistic shooting rate. Instax vs Polaroid argues that trade in full, and the best instant cameras names the picks.

Camera and film bundles: worth it or not

Most cameras in this category are sold both bare and in bundles, and a bundle is usually the camera plus one or two film packs plus some combination of a case, an album and sticker sheets. They are a convenient gift because nothing is missing on the day, and that is a real benefit when the camera is being opened in front of people.

• •Do the pack arithmetic before you decide. A bundle is good value if the film in it is close to what that film would cost separately. Count the exposures, price them as packs, and see what the extras are really costing.
• •Watch what the film is. Some bundles are padded with accessories rather than exposures. Twenty extra shots is worth more than a lanyard and a set of stickers.
• •An album in the bundle is worth having. Instant prints that live loose in a drawer stop being looked at, and a cheap pocket album fixes that — the options are in the best photo albums for instant prints.
• •Buying bare and adding film is never wrong, and it is the cheaper route whenever a bundle's extras are filler. Our instant camera starter kits page covers what a good bundle looks like.

The cameras that need no film at all

There is a third option a lot of gift buyers never see. Pocket photo printers print the photographs already on a phone, with no camera and no film — just media. ZINK paper is about 60 cents a print and works across brands, and Kodak's 4PASS cartridges are about 42 cents. No real instant film comes close.

The trade is the ritual: nothing develops in your hand, and the recipient chooses photographs on a screen rather than taking them. If that sounds better than it sounds worse, read instant camera or photo printer before you buy anything, and the best pocket photo printers for the picks. And if you are wondering whether any of these need ink cartridges, the answer is in do instant cameras need ink.

Where the film comes from after the first pack

One format is genuinely easy to re-buy and the rest are not. instax mini is stocked far more widely than any other instant film, which matters on a Saturday afternoon when a teenager has run out. instax WIDE and SQUARE usually mean a camera shop or an order, and Polaroid film is mostly bought online or direct from Polaroid. The detail, retailer by retailer, is in where to buy instant film — and for the hardware itself, where to buy an instant camera covers which US chains we could verify stock it.

Availability is worth more than a dollar of saving. A camera whose film the owner can pick up with the groceries gets used. A camera whose film takes three days to arrive gets used until the pack runs out, and then it stops.