Fujifilm instax mini Evo Cinema

As an all-in-one instant camera/printer, the Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema does so much right, and the ability to jump between different decades to change the look of your photos never gets old. It’s just a shame that the camera doesn’t reach its potential on video, and at full price it’ll be far too expensive for a lot of people.

The instax mini EVO Cinema may be Fujifilm’s most expensive instant camera to date, but becomes their most desirable too. For starters there’s little else that looks like it, styled like a vintage Super-8 cine camera, with a pistol grip, trigger button, and removeable eyecup to complete the look. Sure the 5 Megapixel sensor falls way behind most phones and the screen is tiny and coarse, but this isn’t about high quality imaging. It’s about embracing a vintage camera look and feel, built around the effects which mimic the technology and aesthetic of ten eras from the black and white film of 1930 to the live streaming of the 2010s with a wealth of vintage options in-between, including tape-based camcorders and early digicams. And it’s not just for photos either, as the EVO Cinema can also apply these effects to short video clips, lasting up to 15 seconds each, complete with animated artefacts and optional sound effects and overlays. It’s all so much fun it’s easy to forget it also features a built-in printer for instax mini film, allowing you to output hard copies of photos or video grabs, or connect it to your phone as a wireless printer. Of course a genuine vintage digicam will be much cheaper, but won’t have the printer or the super-8 design and may have dated charging and connectivity. Ultimately while I’d have been happier if the mini EVO Cinema were a bit cheaper, I still feel it becomes the most successful and desirable in the current crop of retro digicams.