Glossary: every word on the box
i-Type, instax mini, ZINK, 4PASS, dye-sub. Nobody buying a gift should have to learn these, but getting one wrong means buying film that does not fit the camera.
The one thing to take away: film formats are not interchangeable. A camera takes exactly one of them, forever, and that choice sets what every future photograph costs. The format table below lists each one with its print size, pack size and verified cost per picture.
Film and paper formats
The name on the pack has to match the name in the camera’s manual exactly. “Polaroid film” is not a format — there are four of them, and they do not fit each other’s cameras. Sorted cheapest per picture first.
- Canon SELPHY 4 x 6 (KP-108IN)
Printer media · 4 x 6 in · 108 per pack · $0.39 a shot
The cheapest real photo print on this site. A 108-print set costs less than three packs of Polaroid i-Type film and gives you thirteen times the pictures.
- Kodak 4PASS 4 x 6
Printer media · 4 x 6 in · 80 per pack · $0.40 a shot
A full postcard-size print for about the price of a greeting card's worth of instant film.
- Kodak 4PASS 2.1 x 3.4
Printer media · 2.1 x 3.4 in · 60 per pack · $0.42 a shot
Dye-sublimation with a laminate pass, so the print is dry, smudge-proof and not sticky. Cheapest-per-print small format we verified.
- Kodak 4PASS 3 x 3
Printer media · 3 x 3 in · 60 per pack · $0.42 a shot
A square print at a fraction of square instant film's cost.
- ZINK 2 x 3
Printer media · 2 x 3 in · 20 per pack · $0.60 a shot
No ink at all — the color is in the paper and heat develops it. Cheap, instant, dry, and the most sticker-friendly option. The trade-off is color accuracy.
- Canon SELPHY Square (XS-20L)
Printer media · 2.7 x 2.7 in · 20 per pack · $0.80 a shot
Dye-sublimation square prints with a protective overcoat, peel-and-stick backing.
- instax mini
Instant film · 2.4 x 1.8 in (62 x 46 mm) · 20 per pack · $0.85 a shot · ISO 800 · develops in about 90 seconds
The cheapest mainstream instant film, and the one sold in the most places — drugstores and supermarkets stock it, which matters when a gift recipient runs out.
- Polaroid Hi-Print 2 x 3
Printer media · 2 x 3 in · 20 per pack · $0.85 a shot
Dye-sublimation, so better color than ZINK, at a higher cost per print.
- instax WIDE
Instant film · 3.9 x 2.4 in (99 x 62 mm) · 20 per pack · $1.10 a shot · ISO 800 · develops in about 90 seconds
Twice the width of a mini print — the format that actually fits a group of people in frame.
- instax SQUARE
Instant film · 2.4 x 2.4 in (62 x 62 mm image on 86 x 72 mm film) · 20 per pack · $1.15 a shot · ISO 800 · develops in about 90 seconds
The square frame people picture when they think 'Polaroid', at a third of Polaroid's film cost.
- Polaroid Go
Instant film · 2.6 x 2.1 in (66.6 x 53.9 mm) · 16 per pack · $1.37 a shot · ASA 640 · develops in 10-15 minutes
Polaroid's cheapest film per shot, because the print is tiny — smaller than a credit card.
- Polaroid i-Type
Instant film · 4.2 x 3.5 in (107 x 88 mm) · 8 per pack · $2.37 a shot · ASA 640 · develops in 10-15 minutes
The big square print everyone recognizes, and by a wide margin the most expensive film on this site. Eight shots a pack is the number that catches gift buyers out.
- Polaroid 600
Instant film · 4.2 x 3.5 in (107 x 88 mm) · 8 per pack · $2.62 a shot · ASA 640 · develops in 10-15 minutes
For vintage Polaroid 600-series cameras. Buy this only if the camera is an old one.
- Polaroid SX-70
Instant film · 4.2 x 3.5 in (107 x 88 mm) · 8 per pack · $2.75 a shot · ASA 160 · develops in 10-15 minutes
ASA 160 rather than 640, so it needs much more light. The most expensive film per shot on this site, and only for SX-70 and I-2 cameras.
Prices read October 13, 2026 at the retailers listed in the price index. Print sizes and pack counts come from the manufacturer specification pages cited on each product page.
How the picture gets made
Four different technologies are sold in this category under similar-looking names, and they produce visibly different objects at very different running costs.
- Instant film
- Film that a camera exposes and then ejects, with the chemistry to develop itself sealed inside the frame. Nothing is printed and nothing is connected to a phone — the picture appears in the print you are holding. It is the most expensive way to get a photograph on this site, and the only one where the object is the moment. Instant film types explained.
- ZINK (Zero Ink)
- Paper with three layers of dye crystals embedded in it that are colorless until heated. The printer has a thermal head and no ink, no ribbon and no cartridge of any kind: the image forms inside the paper. That is why ZINK printers are the smallest and cheapest hardware in the category, and why the paper is usually sticky-backed. The trade-off is color accuracy. What ZINK paper costs per print.
- Dye-sublimation (dye-sub)
- A printing method that turns solid dye from a ribbon into gas, which penetrates the paper and is then sealed under a clear laminate. More parts than ZINK, so the hardware is bigger, but the color is better and the print is dry, smudge-proof and far more resistant to light. It is also the cheapest print per photograph on this site. How pocket photo printers work.
- 4PASS
- Kodak’s name for its dye-sublimation process: three color passes plus a fourth laminate pass over the same sheet. The fourth pass is the one that matters to a gift buyer — it is what makes the print dry and smudge-proof rather than sticky.
- Hybrid instant camera
- A camera with a digital sensor and a screen in front of an instant-film printer, so you see the shot before deciding whether to spend a frame on it. The single biggest saving available in this category: at a realistic keeper rate it roughly halves what each photograph you actually wanted costs you. The instax mini Evo is the example.
- Pocket photo printer
- A printer the size of a phone that prints photos already on that phone, over Bluetooth. No viewfinder, no film to waste on a bad frame, and usually the cheaper per print of the two options. Camera or printer?
- Instant photo printer
- A pocket printer that exposes real instant film with an LED array rather than printing with heat and dye. The print it makes is an instant photograph, not an imitation of one — same white border, same look, same cost per shot as the camera film it uses.
The cost words we use
These are the terms this site leans on hardest, so here is exactly what each one means when we use it.
- Cost per shot
- The pack price divided by the number of exposures in the pack, rounded to the cent, with no shipping or tax. The number this whole site is organized around, because it is what decides whether a gift keeps getting used. Every figure we publish is computed from prices we read ourselves on October 13, 2026 and listed with its source in the film and paper price index.
- Exposures per pack
- How many pictures are in one pack. It is the detail that catches gift buyers out more than any other: instant film packs run from 8 exposures to 20, and printer paper from 20 to over 100. Two packs at the same price on the shelf can hold two and a half times the pictures. How much film do I need?
- First-year cost
- The hardware price plus the film for a realistic number of shots in the first year. The honest total, and the figure that reorders the whole category once you see it: the cheapest camera on the shelf is frequently not the cheapest camera to own.
- Develop time
- How long the picture takes to appear after the camera ejects it. Around 90 seconds on instax film and 10 to 15 minutes on Polaroid film — which is long enough that a child or a wedding guest will assume something has gone wrong, so it is worth saying out loud when you hand the camera over.
- ISO / ASA
- The film’s light sensitivity. It is fixed: an instant camera has no ISO setting, so the number printed on the pack is the whole story about how much light that film needs. Most instax film is ISO 800 and most Polaroid film ASA 640, with Polaroid SX-70 at ASA 160, which needs far more light than anything else here. What to look for in an instant camera.
The one mistake this page exists to prevent
Buying the wrong film. The two Polaroid formats that look identical on a shelf are Polaroid i-Type and Polaroid 600: same print size, same pack count, different cameras. i-Type film has no battery in the pack because the modern cameras have their own; 600 film carries one because the vintage cameras draw power from it. Putting i-Type in a 1980s camera leaves you with a camera that will not fire.
So before you add film to the basket, read the format name off the camera listing and match it word for word. If the camera is a gift and you do not have it in front of you, instant film types explained works through which camera takes which.
Where to go next
- Gift finder — skip the vocabulary and start from who it is for.
- Film and paper price index — every format, its price, and where we checked it.
- What to look for in an instant camera
- Brands compared — who makes what, and which film each brand locks you into.