The best digital instant cameras are perfect for taking pictures on the go, enabling you to take quick pics and produce a physical photograph on the spot.
As you might have guessed, the best digital instant cameras feature a digital image sensor – which differentiates them from the best instant cameras (such as the Instax Mini 12 and Polaroid Now+) that take completely analog photos.
Some of them also double as portable printers, enabling you to print out images from your phone. They're small, compact and lightweight, so they're great for festivals, holidays, weddings and get-togethers.
A true instant camera nerd!
A true instant camera nerd!
James Artaius
Having taken my first Polaroid in 1984, I've been in love with instant photography for decades – and I love the move to digital instant cameras. I've used well over 20 of these cameras and I own half a dozen of them, so I can guide you towards the best on the market.
Our favorite digital instant camera enables basic editing before you print out your shot, and you can print images from your phone too. Read more below…
This cute and compact Zink-based model has a screen so you can review your image before you decide to make a print. Read more below…
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Best digital instant cameras in 2024
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Risk free printing: we can view our shots before we hit print
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3-inch LCD allows for some editing
Reasons to avoid
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Requires additional microSD card, not provided, to expand the internal memory
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Battery life lasts a modest 100 shots
This is my favorite hybrid digital instant camera, outclassing the Instax Mini LiPlay in every department. You can use it to edit a photo you’ve just taken before you print it out – and it also enables you to turn images from your phone into real Instax photos. Ever wanted to produce an instant print of a phone selfie, or a shot you took on a ‘proper’ camera? Now you can!
The Mini Evo boasts a simple but appealing vintage design. My favorite feature is the lever on the back, reminiscent of the lever for advancing the film on old cameras; except here you use the lever to print a photo when you're ready. (There’s a clever effect where the image slowly slides off the rear screen as the print comes out of the side.)
The Mini Evo has deservedly been a monster hit, marrying the fun of analog photography with filters and effects familiar to the Instagram generation. The ability to pair it with your phone to use as a mobile printer is the cherry on top. If you're anything like me and you love to share instant photos with your friends, you’ll love owning this camera.
Our reviewer has used most instant cameras, but they named the Leica Sofort 2 are the best-looking instant camera to date, and it is hard not to agree. With the world-famous Leica red dot and minimalist Leica styling, this is a chic piece of design. Leica’s premium design of course adds to its cost, and it does come at a price beyond the Instax Mini Evo, although fundamentally the two share the same technology, so you need to decide how much that red dot is worth.
Instead of its own proprietary film, the Leica Sofort 2 uses Instax Mini film, which can be bought pretty much everywhere around the world, so you won't ever have to look far to create a few more memories.
In common the other hybrid cameras, the Sofort 2’s image quality is nothing to write home about, with only a 4.9MP sensor. This isn’t about capturing stunning shots, though: it’s about being spontaneous and having fun with your photos. And this is surely the classiest way you can do that.
If you're happy capturing and printing on Zink paper, as opposed to real film, the Kodak Smile Classic offers the best print quality of any Zink-based instant printer we've used, as well as full-size prints. Typical Zink prints are 2 x 3 inches, but the Smile Classic produces more substantial 3.5 x 4.25-inch pictures, which more closely resemble traditional photographic prints.
This is by far the best Zink printer on the list, and it's aided by the larger 16MP sensor (although it's more likely to be an interpolated 8MP sensor). Its design resembles an analog Polaroid camera, but the downside to that is it has no digital screen – so you can't check the photos you've taken. It does, however, have a slot for a microSD card, so you can review the pictures later on another device.
The pleasing design and pure point-and-click simplicity make this an appealing camera to hold and shoot with – especially for kids. Likewise, the accompanying app is friendly and fun to use and enables you to add augmented reality features such as video. If you want a retro instant camera experience that produces a modern digital photo, this is hard to beat.
One of the most affordable digital instant cameras out there, the Kodak Printomatic is an extremely basic setup for those who like to keep things simple. It's a no-frills digital instant camera, simultaneously saving 5MP digital photos and printing out 2x3-inch prints on Zink paper. So, while you get the advantage of a point-and-shoot that's so straightforward a child could operate it, the quality of the images you get is pretty average. There's also a lack of useful features like a self-timer or an LCD screen.
Still, the design of the Printomatic is pretty minimalist and chic – we like it in the yellow pictured above, though there are options like pink, cyan and luminous green, should you prefer. If you're looking for a serious photographic tool there are better options on this list, but if you just want something cheap and simple that works, the Kodak Printomatic fills out that brief just fine.
Zero ink ‘zink’ prints are immediately dry to the touch
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Captured images can be reviewed before printing
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Adhesive-backed prints can double up as stickers
Reasons to avoid
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Disappointing print quality with washed-out color
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Plastic-y feel to the construction
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Only 40 prints from a single charge
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Premium price for an LCD screen
Like the look of the Printomatic (above) but wish there was a touchscreen and pop-up flash? Then the Kodak Step Touch is for you. Again, it doesn't offer the best image quality on this list, but it's cute and compact – and it does come with an LCD touchscreen. It's definitely more a bit of fun than a serious shooting device, with its plastic-y build and washed-out prints, but it's good fun if you can find one for a value-added price.
There are two main formats used by the best digital instant cameras: Zink (aka zero-ink) thermal paper and traditional Instax film – yes, the kind that you put in analog instant cameras.
Zink printing doesn't require costly ink cartridges, it's reliable, and the images are smudge-proof. They also tend to be hardier than instant film exposures and are resistant to water. Another upside to Zink is that the paper costs a lot less than instant film.
Where Zink photos look like regular printed-out pictures, Instax photos are exposed photochemically – so they possess that unique, retro, otherworldly "instant camera look", with crunchy contrast and vibrant colors. You can great images from both, so which you go for is down to personal preference.
How we test digital instant cameras
We don't test instant cameras using the same scientific lab tests we do on the latest mirrorless cameras and lenses – but our evaluation is no less exhaustive! When we get an instant camera, we take it to an actual shooting environment and run a few packs of film through it, seeing how it performs in a variety of lighting and environmental conditions. This is especially important with cameras that use a photochemical exposure process, since results can vary greatly even in only subtly different situations.
Factors such as feature sets are taken into consideration, especially as this relates to ease of use – since instant cameras are supposed to take pictures instantly, with minimal messing around. Battery life is a key point as well, given that there's physical printing / exposure and usually a flash being fired. Image quality is quite subjective, here; photochemical prints inherently possess a different set of characteristics, though Zink images can be more fairly evaluated in terms of print quality.
James has 22 years experience as a journalist, serving as editor of Digital Camera World for 6 of them. He started working in the photography industry in 2014, product testing and shooting ad campaigns for Olympus, as well as clients like Aston Martin Racing, Elinchrom and L'Oréal. An Olympus, Canon and Hasselblad shooter, he has a wealth of knowledge on cameras of all makes.
