Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo review: lacking wide appeal

Fujifilm's Instax line has long been celebrated for bringing the charm of instant photography to a new generation. But one area that has been neglected for some years is Instax's Wide range of cameras with an almost 10-year hiatus until last year's Instax Wide 400 revival. However, with the arrival of a second Wide camera in less than six months, Fujifilm seems determined to keep its Wide format relevant.

But where the Wide 400 was a classic Instax analog experience – the Instax Wide Evo fits into Instax's line of hybrid digital camera/printer devices. Building on the success of the Instax Mini Evo, which blended digital convenience with analog appeal, this latest model offers a broader perspective, both in terms of its wide-format prints and its enhanced creative features.

However, with a less familiar film format, a larger camera, and an increased price – can Fujifilm repeat the success of the Instax Mini Evo?

Instax Wide Evo: Specifications

Instax Wide Evo: Price

The Instax Wide Evo comes in as the most expensive Instax camera to date costing $349.99 / £319.99 which is a pretty substantial leap from its smaller sibling the Instax Mini Evo which is nearly half the price at $199.99 / £174.99. There is an increase in film size, new controls, and a new lens, but is hard to pinpoint if these are really an additional $150 worth of improvements.

I think the biggest question to ask is how much are you going to use the Wide Evo as a camera, and how much as a printer – if you want to have everything in one device then you might see value in the investment into the Wide Evo.

But there are alternatives to the Wide Evo – an Instax Link Wide printer costs $149 / £139 and will let you print photos from your phone's camera, or even a digital camera like Fujifilm’s X100VI. And if you are after the proper analog Instax experience in wide, then the Instax Wide 400 costs $149.99 / £129.99. And don’t forget with all these options you need to buy Instax Wide film packs, which cost $19 for packs of 10, which makes it around 90c per print.

Instax Wide Evo: Design & Handling

While thankfully the Instax Wide Evo is more slender than the big green brick that is the Instax Wide 400, there is no escaping that this is still a very large camera. So large in fact that a passing parent felt the need to point out my “big camera” to their toddler. Although any embarrassment thankfully was diminished by the fact that the Wide Evo is a stunning-looking camera, and I think the joint best-looking model in the Instax range alongside the Instax Mini Evo (although I do have a soft spot for the Mini 99).

Looking just different enough from the Mini Evo to stand apart, but still keeping it in the family, the Wide Evo blends the modern aesthetic of the Fujifilm GFX range, echoing Fujifilm’s Bishamon-Tex material, and the classic look of film-era cameras. The camera also feels great in the hand, with a build quality that is leagues above the cheap and cheerful Instax Mini 12 and reflects its high price.

The Wide Evo has the widest lens yet on an Instax camera at 16.6mm (full-frame equivalent), which is great for landscapes or cityscapes where you want to get a more sweeping panorama, but also works brilliantly for group shots at arm's length – and thankfully unlike other recent Instax cameras, this one does have a selfie mirror. But if that sounds a little too wide, the lens also has another narrower mode which is accessed via a little switch on the front of the camera which is around a 1.8x crop to a 28mm equivalent focal length.

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Initially, there was an almost overwhelming number of dials and buttons to play around with, but I found the control system actually very intuitive. The main dials I think you’d be using are positioned on either side of the camera within a thumb’s reach for controlling film styles and effects – although I did find these could have used a lot more resistance to turn as I frequently managed to change settings with just an accidental brush against my jacket.

On the left the dial controls the film effects that can be applied to images, these are things such as vignetting, light leaks, or light beams – these can then be tweaked further with 100 different patterns for each effect by twisting the lens while the effect is highlighted. On the right-hand side, the dial controls the image style, things like; green tones, monochrome, and summer vibes. There are ten of each effect and style, as well as 100 varieties of each effect, putting you at thousands of different combinations.

But there is also a button up top for film borders. There are five different film borders (on the image area, not to be confused with the borders on the prints), these include options like cinematic if you want an even narrower shot, or my favorite which is the 35mm sprocket border. Overall, there is a ton of customizability with the Wide Evo so you can create some pretty unique images.

My favorite dial on the Wide Evo is the print lever which is a reincarnated wind lever from film cameras, yes this could have been a button, but I love mechanical things, and the wind level is just very fun to spin and adds to the charm of the camera. About two full turns on an image will send it to the printer, there is a visual indication screen to follow along, and if you want to abort before it starts printing, you can spin the level the other way or just stop and put the camera down for a few seconds.

There is no viewfinder on the Wide Evo, so the screen is the only way to frame shots. Unfortunately the screen is fairly poor quality, with low resolution and terrible viewing angles, but looking at it straight on just about gets the job done for framing and viewing images. All the camera settings and image playback are controlled using the clearly labeled buttons and joystick under the screen.

Finally storage – the Wide Evo has built-in storage that is enough for around 45 images, or you can (and should) use a MicroSD card. Frustratingly, like the Instax Mini Evo, you can only copy photos onto your phone that you have physically printed using the Wide Evo. I find this just a really strange and unnecessary limitation, it really reduces the Wide Evo’s usefulness as a digital camera while also coming across as a shady ploy to make you buy more film, which at around 90c per print – isn’t cheap.

Instax Wide Evo: Performance

Let's start with what Instax is all about – prints. And the Instax Wide format is the largest and most detailed of all the Instax print sizes. The Wide Evo produced consistently well-exposed shots, with the digital sensor I think picking up more details in the shadows and more saturated colors than analog Instax cameras – while this made prints a little less contrasty than what I usually expect, it's probably not a difference anyone except a camera reviewer would notice.

The image effects and styles are interesting, I am not the biggest fan of kitschy images with effects, stickers, etc, but there is enough here I found myself using. The summer style and light leaks effect I found a particular favorite combination – and I especially appreciated the different styles of light leaks so I could avoid them covering too much of my subject – although with 100 to choose from, by the time I had found the right one, the moment had almost certainly passed.

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Maybe I am spoilt by high-end phones and cameras, but the Wide Evo just feels slow. Swapping between lenses or coming out of menus just takes a beat too long. Shutter lag was also a recurring issue, with it sometimes taking a second to take the image, by which point me or my subject had moved.

Battery life is also on the poor side. I managed to burn through the battery in just a couple of hours of shooting, and as the battery is internal, there is no way to quickly swap it out for a spare. Considering I think this camera’s best use case is weddings or events, which are usually full-day affairs, you would have to time your charging pretty well or have a few of these cameras to go the distance.

The Wide Evo arrives alongside a brand new companion app for iOS or Android, fittingly called Instax Wide Evo in the app store. The app is simple enough to use, with a slick, streamlined but limited interface – this is an app for function, not fun like most of Instax’s other apps. I also found the Bluetooth connection to be one of the most reliable camera-to-phone connections I have tested.

There are only three real features of the app, firstly, the app can function as a remote shutter for the Wide Evo, although annoyingly, you can’t change the style or effects settings remotely, so you have to go back to the camera – except you also can’t change them on the camera while live view is active.

The app also has a new discover feature for finding inspiration for styles and effects that other Wide Evo users have shared on Instagram (you can share your own images with the affiliated hashtags). You can then save these looks as favorites on your Wide Evo to use later. While at the time of review, there weren’t a lot of Discover images yet, I did find this to be a really useful tool for discovering how some of the effects I dismissed as too tacky could be used to good effect – with the right photo.

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Finally, the app is used for both copying images from the camera and printing images from your phone. I have already moaned about how you can only copy images you have previously physically printed, but I will mention it again, as it is very frustrating.

In terms of digital image quality from the Wide Evo’s camera – photos are fine for printing, but honestly, I don’t think I would use these for anything else. Images did have a charming retro lo-fi look to them, which is all the rage with compact cameras right now, but with plenty of compact cameras under $100, there are cheaper ways to get the look if that's what you’re after. Images transferred using the app to my phone are only just over 1MP (1318x1066 including the film border), so are just about fine for social media but limited for most other uses.

The Wide Evo can also print from your phone using the companion app. While the app can’t apply any of the film styles or effects to images – which might sound like a big selling point for using the Wide Evo camera – there are dozens of other apps available (many for free) that will add similar effects to your phone images before you send them to the Instax app for printing. Instax prints also have a limited ceiling for quality, and once printed, phone photo and Wide Evo camera photo quality all blur together anyway.

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Instax Wide Evo: Verdict

The Instax Wide Evo is one pretty camera, the stylish modern meets retro look is a real joy to have sitting on my desk in front of me right now. However, all that style can’t disguise that the camera is still pretty big – not Wide 400 big – but I was repeatedly clocked when pulling this out of my bag. The Wide Evo has a multitude of controls and makes it one of the best handling Instax cameras yet – as well as one of the most personal Instax photography experiences, with hundreds of different combinations of photo styles, light effects, and borders combining into unique photos, which in the right circumstances I found to be fun to play with and not too kitschy, but there is always normal modes to fall back on.

Print quality is classic Instax which we all know and love, and printing on Instax Wide film means these are the largest and most detailed prints you can get. However, this is a hybrid camera, and digital image capabilities are not the strongest, there are also frustrating limitations in the app on which pictures you can transfer off the camera. Digital images are just enough quality for printing but have limited use beyond that, fine for a quick story on social media, but for long-term posterity, you might wish you used your phone. This might be the better option anyway, as the Wide Evo is also a printer that can print Instax Wide versions of your phone images, and with the same print quality, you likely won’t notice the difference.

However, this leads me to the biggest issue with the Wide Evo – its price. At $350, you really have to value the all-in-one camera and printer experience, as for less than half price ($150) you can buy an Instax Link Wide printer and print classic Instax prints from your phone’s library. When you start adding the cost of prints (around 90c each), the Instax Wide Evo is a very expensive pursuit.

Alternatives

Instax Mini Evo

This is the same hybrid design as the Wide Evo, but prints on the more ubiquitous Instax Mini film – which means the camera can be much smaller. The Mini Evo is also around half the price of its big brother, which is much more suited to casual users. Read the full review…

Instax Link Wide

If all you want is just to print your photos then check out Instax’s range of printers, and if you like the Wide aspect and largest format of film, then your best bet is the Instax Link Wide printer. Read the full review…

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