The best instant cameras for travel

#	Product	Best for	Cost per shot	Price
1	Fujifilm instax mini 12Light, cheap, and powered by batteries you can buy at any airport shop in the world.	Best travel camera	$0.85	Check price
2	Fujifilm instax mini 13The same camera with a self-timer, which is what you need with nobody to hold it.	Best for traveling alone	$0.85	Check price
3	Fujifilm instax mini EvoA screen means you only spend film you brought with you on photographs worth keeping.	Best for not wasting film abroad	$0.85	Check price
4	Polaroid Go Generation 3Genuinely pocketable at 251.9 g — and a film you will not find abroad.	Smallest, if you must have a Polaroid	$1.37	Check price

Travel changes which specifications matter

At home, the interesting specifications are print size and features. Traveling, three different things decide whether the camera gets used at all.

1. Battery type, which is the big one

A rechargeable camera needs a cable, a plug adapter, and somewhere to plug it in. A camera that takes AA batteries needs a shop. On a trip, the second is a much lower-risk proposition.

The CR2 row is the one to watch. The SQUARE SQ40's cells last about 30 film packs — an extremely long time — but they are not sold in general retail, so if they do die mid-trip you are unlikely to replace them. Carry a spare pair.

2. Film availability where you are going

instax mini is the only instant film with genuine general-retail distribution, and that holds internationally far better than any other format. Everything else means carrying enough film for the whole trip.

There is a practical weight consequence too: film is not light. A 20-exposure instax pack is a small brick, and five of them plus a camera is a noticeable part of a daypack.

3. One copy, and the risk of losing it

This is the travel-specific argument for a hybrid camera. An instant print exists once. Lose it, get it wet, or leave it in a hostel and the photograph is gone — and you were on a trip, so it is not a photograph you can retake.

An instax mini Evo keeps a digital file alongside the print, on internal memory or a microSD card. For a once-in-a-decade trip that is a genuine argument for it over a simpler camera.

1. Best travel camera

Fujifilm instax mini 12

Light, cheap, and powered by batteries you can buy at any airport shop in the world.

Buy it for

Any trip, anywhere.

Skip it if

Group photographs, or a trip where you want the biggest possible print.

• •**306 g** — the lightest instant camera here.
• •**Two AA batteries**, available in literally any shop. No charger, no adapter, no cable.
• •instax mini film is the one format stocked in general retail internationally.
• •Cheap enough that losing it on a trip is annoying rather than expensive.
• •About 100 exposures per set of batteries.

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

How it scores8.8/10 overall

• Weight10
• Battery availability10
• Film availability abroad10
• Print size5

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.

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. Best for traveling alone

Fujifilm instax mini 13

The same camera with a self-timer, which is what you need with nobody to hold it.

Buy it for

Solo travelers, and couples who want to both be in the photograph.

Skip it if

The absolute lightest packing.

• •A **2- or 10-second self-timer** — the single most useful travel feature on any camera here.
• •Same AA batteries and same supermarket film.
• •327 g, marginally heavier than the mini 12.

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

How it scores8.9/10 overall

• Weight9
• Battery availability10
• Self-portraits10
• Print size5

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.

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3. Best for not wasting film abroad

Fujifilm instax mini Evo

A screen means you only spend film you brought with you on photographs worth keeping.

Buy it for

A longer trip, where film is heavy to carry and hard to replace.

Skip it if

Anywhere you cannot charge it.

• •Shoots digitally, so you print only keepers — critical when film is a finite resource you packed.
• •Keeps digital files too, which means a lost print is not a lost photograph.
• •**285 g** and 36 mm thick — flatter than any of the simple minis.
• •About 100 prints per charge, but it does need charging.

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

How it scores8.5/10 overall

• Weight9
• Film efficiency10
• Battery availability4
• Backup copies10

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.

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

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4. Smallest, if you must have a Polaroid

Polaroid Go Generation 3

Genuinely pocketable at 251.9 g — and a film you will not find abroad.

Buy it for

Someone who wants a Polaroid and is traveling somewhere with good shops.

Skip it if

Remote travel. Go film fits nothing else and is an online purchase almost everywhere.

• •**251.9 g** and 106.5 x 83.8 x 64.6 mm — the smallest camera on this page.
• •Up to 15 film packs per charge, which is a lot for a trip.
• •Go film is $1.37 a shot, Polaroid's cheapest.
• •But: a rechargeable battery and a film you must carry enough of.

Running cost: Polaroid Go works out at $1.37 a shot, so a hundred photographs in the first year puts the real total at about $243.92 including the camera. See every format’s cost.

How it scores7.0/10 overall

• Weight10
• Battery availability4
• Film availability abroad2
• Print size4

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.

Engadget, which publishes hands-on reviews, calls it “basic and relatively cheap, but it offers a lot”.

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What to pack

1. 1.The camera, and a spare set of batteries. Two AAs for a mini, four for a WIDE 400, a spare pair of CR2 for an SQ40.
2. 2.Film: your estimate plus one pack. For a two-week trip, two or three 20-exposure packs is realistic for most people.
3. 3.A hard case or a sock. Film packs are fine loose; a camera lens is not.
4. 4.Something flat to keep prints in. A thin album or even an envelope. Prints loose in a bag get bent, and a bent instant print is a damaged one.
5. 5.Not a printer. Pocket printers need charging and a phone app, and the one thing you have plenty of on a trip is photographs on your phone — which you can print when you get home, more cheaply.

Keeping film safe on the way

• •Heat is the real enemy. Film left in a hot car or a sunny windowsill is damaged film. Keep it in the middle of a bag, out of direct sun.
• •Carry it in hand luggage. Not because of X-ray scanners at normal screening doses, but because hold luggage goes through more handling and bigger temperature swings.
• •Do not pre-load the camera and leave it in the sun. The loaded pack is as vulnerable as a spare one.
• •Developing prints need shade. Face-down, in a pocket, for 90 seconds on instax. In bright sunlight an exposed print can be ruined in the first few seconds.