Fujifilm instax WIDE Evo review

1. Verdict: the most capable instax, at the hardest price to justify

Fujifilm instax WIDE Evo

A 16 mm lens, a 3.5 inch screen and the biggest instax print — on the most expensive body in the range, and a film bill to match.

Buy it for

Someone who already knows they want WIDE prints, shoots enough to care about not wasting film, and wants one device that is a camera, a phone printer and a creative toy.

Skip it if

A gift buyer, a beginner, or anyone whose main requirement is pocketability. At about 490 g it is a bag camera, and a mini Evo does the same trick for far less on cheaper film.

• •**A 16 mm equivalent F2.4 lens** — Fujifilm calls it the widest angle in instax history, and it is the reason to choose this over a mini hybrid.
• •**A 3.5 inch, 460,000-dot screen**, so you spend a $1.10 frame only on a photograph you have already seen.
• •**The 3.9 x 2.4 inch WIDE print**, roughly twice the area of an instax mini.
• •**10 lens effects, 10 film effects and 6 film styles**, with a degree dial for how hard each is applied.
• •**About 100 prints per charge** and Bluetooth 5.1 phone printing, so it replaces a separate pocket printer.

Running cost: instax WIDE works out at $1.10 a shot, so a hundred photographs in the first year puts the real total at about $519.90 including the camera. See every format’s cost.

How it scores7.4/10 overall

• Print size9
• Creative control9
• Not wasting film9
• Portability4
• Value4

Our editorial scoring, built from published specifications and reviews by outlets that test hardware — see how we pick. We have not handled these products, so these are not test results.

Tech Advisor, which publishes hands-on reviews, calls it “this camera-printer hybrid has a high price tag that most people will find hard to justify”.

TechRadar, which publishes hands-on reviews, calls it “one of the most stylish instant hybrid cameras I've ever seen”.

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Read the full review

What it is

The WIDE Evo is a hybrid: a digital camera with an instax printer in the same body. You take the photograph, look at it on the screen on the back, and decide whether it is worth a sheet of film. Nothing is committed until you press print.

That is the same idea as the instax mini Evo, which has been the smartest camera in this category for years. The difference here is the format. The mini Evo prints a 2.4 x 1.8 inch photograph; the WIDE Evo prints 3.9 x 2.4 inches, which is about twice the picture area and the format that actually fits a group of people. Fujifilm had never built a WIDE hybrid before this one.

It is also a phone printer. Over Bluetooth 5.1 you can send images from a phone to print, shoot remotely, and pull the camera's photographs back off it. That is the same job the instax Link WIDE 2 does on its own, which is worth bearing in mind if printing is all you want.

Specifications

The lens is the actual reason to buy it

A 16 mm equivalent focal length is very wide — wider than almost any phone's main camera, and far wider than the roughly 28 mm of the mini Evo. Fujifilm describes it as the widest angle in instax history, and on a WIDE print the combination is the point: a genuinely wide frame rendered at close to four inches across.

It also means close focus. The camera focuses from 10 cm, so the wide lens can be pushed right up to a subject for the exaggerated, slightly distorted look that wide-angle photography is good at. No other instax can do that.

What it costs to run

instax WIDE film was $21.99 for 20 exposures when we checked, which is about $1.10 a shot — more than instax mini, less than any Polaroid, and about two thirds of the cost per square inch of picture that a mini works out at. Where the screen earns its keep is that none of those shots has to be wasted.

The honest reading of that table: on film alone the WIDE Evo and the much cheaper instax WIDE 400 cost exactly the same to run, because they take exactly the same film. The Evo's argument is not running cost — it is that a screen turns 20 exposures into 20 photographs you chose, where a viewfinder-only camera turns them into 20 attempts. Full per-format figures are in how much instax film costs.

What it is good at

• •The widest lens in instax. 16 mm equivalent at F2.4, focusing from 10 cm — a combination nothing else in the range offers.
• •The biggest instax print, chosen deliberately. A 3.5 inch screen in front of a 3.9 x 2.4 inch print means no frame is spent on a blink.
• •Real creative control. 10 lens effects with a degree dial, 10 film effects and 6 film styles, including a contact-sheet and film-strip look, applied before printing rather than hoped for.
• •It is also a WIDE phone printer. Bluetooth 5.1, print from phone, remote shutter and image transfer — one device instead of two.
• •About 100 prints per charge, which is five packs of film, so it will survive an event without a power bank.
• •A fast shutter. 1/4 to 1/8000 sec is far beyond what a film instax offers and makes the wide F2.4 lens usable in bright light.

Where it falls short

• •The price. This is the most expensive instax camera in the lineup. Tech Advisor, which has handled it, called it a camera whose "high price tag" most people "will find hard to justify" and put it about $150 above the mini Evo.
• •The size and weight. About 490 g and 138.7 x 125 x 62.8 mm. Tech Advisor describes it as bulky and awkward and not usable one-handed. This is a bag camera, not a pocket one.
• •The flash reaches about 1.5 m. Shorter than a basic instax mini's. Indoors, at distance, it will not carry.
• •Internal storage is small. About 45 images before you need a microSD card, which is not supplied.
• •USB-C is charging only. No wired transfer to a computer.
• •The film is not cheap and is not everywhere. WIDE film costs about $1.10 a shot and is stocked far more thinly in general retail than instax mini.
• •It is a digital camera. The photograph is a print of a file. If the appeal of instant photography for you is that the film itself was in the room, a hybrid will always feel like a slightly different thing.

Alternatives

• •[instax WIDE 400](/instant-cameras/instax-wide-400-review) — the same print, the same film and the same running cost, on a simple film camera at a fraction of the price. Buy it if you want WIDE prints and do not need a screen.
• •[instax mini Evo](/instant-cameras/instax-mini-evo-review) — the same hybrid idea, the same effects system, a smaller print and cheaper film. For most buyers this is the better purchase, and it is the one we would give.
• •[instax Link WIDE 2](/photo-printers/instax-link-wide-review) — WIDE prints from a phone with no camera at all. The right answer if the photographs you want to print are already taken.
• •[Polaroid Now Generation 3](/instant-cameras/polaroid-now-gen-3-review) — the bigger, squarer, far more expensive print, on real film with no screen. A different thing, not a cheaper one.
• •Still deciding on format? instax mini vs instax WIDE is the page that settles it before you spend anything.

Who should buy it

Buy the WIDE Evo if you already know you want WIDE prints, you shoot often enough that wasted frames annoy you, and the 16 mm lens is something you would actually use. For a photographer who wants one object that covers shooting, printing from a phone and a genuine creative toolkit on the biggest instax format, nothing else does the job.

Do not buy it as a gift. It is heavy, it is the most expensive camera in the range, its film is harder to find than mini, and a recipient who has never used an instant camera will get more out of a mini Evo or a simple instax mini plus three packs of film — instant cameras and film sets out how many packs any camera needs. The full ranked field is in the best instax cameras, and if phone printing is the real requirement, instant cameras that print from your phone covers every hybrid in one place.