Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo 2 Brings Touchscreen Power and Video Clips to Instant Photography

Fujifilm revealed the Instax Mini Evo 2 as a hybrid instant camera that pairs digital capture with printing on classic mini film, letting users review shots and print only the ones they want while keeping digital copies of everything. Available at the end of November for $289.95 in black only, it upgrades the original model with a larger sensor, a much bigger rear display, and two new shooting tools that expand how people frame and record moments. The body keeps the retro silver-and-black look with textured panels, analog-style dials, and a film-advance lever for printing, so the hands-on feel stays familiar even as the back changes completely.

A 4.46-inch touchscreen has now taken over the whole rear of the camera, replacing the previous 3-inch screen and its physical controls. That’s a first for an Instax camera, and the extra space makes composition and menu navigation much easier, especially because the screen has 1.23 million pixels. The physical dials are still present, and you can choose from ten different lens effects and ten different film effects that, when combined, give you 100 different looks. However, the selection has been updated, while the old fisheye and mirror settings have been replaced by a wide-angle setting and an after image effect. You can still control the exposure, white balance, and flash using the knobs or the screen, and a small selfie mirror on the front allows you to quickly take some self portraits.

Behind the 21mm equivalent lens is a 1/2.77-inch CMOS sensor, which is significantly superior to the original little 1/5-inch chip. Standard images are saved at approximately 6.1 megapixels, but if you insert a microSD card, you can capture up to 12.8 megapixels if you shoot in the appropriate modes. Single autofocus and face detection are both present, and the focus range remains the same, ranging from 10 centimeters to infinity. Then there’s Expanded View mode, which allows you to see a considerably larger part of the scene on the screen before taking the photograph, as long as you don’t change the size of the final image.

Immersive Movie mode records the four or five seconds preceding each shot as a short vertical video clip of 560 by 992 pixels at 24 frames per second. These are all audio-free and saved as MP4 files; they require a microSD card because the camera only keeps photographs on internal memory, which takes up a lot of space.

Speaking of which, the internal capacity is sufficient for approximately 45 photos, but if you insert a 256GB card, you’ll be able to continue shooting for quite a while. Photos appear in less than 15 seconds at 600 dpi, with the option of using rich or natural settings, and a full charge yields approximately 90 prints. Charging is a straightforward USB-C process that takes two or three hours, and there’s an app that allows you to print phone images, control the camera from your phone, and transfer files via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

You get macro mode, self timers, and a plethora of different flash settings to experiment with, and the camera itself weighs around 330 grams without film and measures 87.5 by 125.3 by 43.7 millimeters. Ideal for those who enjoy the instant film process but want to preview how their images look before printing, experiment with different effects, and record short snippets of the buildup to the shoot.