An instant camera for the 21st century, the Mini Evo allows you to preview your shots before you take them, tweak the exposure, add filters and flash, then print and share your shots to social media. Paired with its companion app, it can even be used to print off your smartphone pictures as well. The Instax Mini Evo is a love letter to Fuji's 1970s heyday, with a retro-inspired design and abundance of easy-to-use filters and effects designed to mimic analogue film. It easily meets the criteria to make our list of best instant cameras. But is it predominantly an instant camera, or simply a digital one with a built-in Instax film printer? Only printed photos and images in your print history can be transferred. Up to 50 photos are saved in your print history so be sure to transfer your shots over regularly to keep them on your phone. What memory card does the instax mini Evo take? The mirror filter splits the frame in half with a mirrored reflection effect—it's a good tool to get creative shots with perfect symmetry (Photo: Jim Fisher) Image quality isn't anything to write home about—the Mini Evo's 1/5-inch CMOS sensor matches up with budget smartphones, not flagships. It snaps 5MP photos, good enough for Mini prints and social shares, but not much else. Recent Samsung Galaxy phones and iPhones offer much more capable camera experiences. But the filters and color profiles are a boon for creators, and wireless connectivity allows you to print photos from your phone's camera roll.

The instax mini Evo uses a 28mm f2 lens, this gives you a wide-angle that gets everyone in the shot. Snap subjects as close as 10cm all the way to infinity. A color shift filter adds cyan and magenta false color to the edges of subjects (Photo: Jim Fisher) Printing images from your phone to the Mini Evo comes without any real restrictions; it only takes about five seconds to transfer and start printing a photo. You can use any editing app on your phone to get the look right, too. You're limited in what images you can send to your smartphone—the Mini Evo only sends photos that have already been printed via Bluetooth Left: Print taken with the Instax Mini Evo’s 4.92-megapixel camera. Right: Photo taken with an iPhone 12 Pro and printed with the Instax mini Evo via the Instax Mini Evo app. Raymond Wong / Input Instantly print the images you take or send them over to your smartphone for sharing on social media. The choice is up to you.The wide-angle lens is good enough for shots of one or two people together—its 28mm angle is just a little narrower than the main lens on most smartphones. It's fairly bright too, with a fixed f/2 aperture, but the Evo still relies on its built-in flash for photos in typical home lighting. The flash is an LED, like the one on smartphones, but offers a bit of soft diffusion and better reach than bare smartphone lenses because of its fresnel surface finish.

The Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo camera is an interesting hybrid product for a fair price that seeks to expand on the self-imposed limitations of an instant print camera that only outputs credit card sized prints. Where as the LiPlay is designed for one-button operation, the Mini Evo leans heavier on tactile controls. It takes advantage of the retro aesthetics, too—a control ring around the lens swaps through different lens filter effects and a dial on the top plate applies different color profiles. It even features a dedicated lever for printing, styled after an analog camera's film advance. The soft focus filter smooth details and adds a glow to imagesYou can still get a sense of the frame in bright, glare-inducing conditions, but it's tough to really see what's happening. As such, you need to trust the Evo to focus on the right subject. In practice, I found that it does a very good job—it only misfocused a couple of times. The mirror filter splits the frame in half with a mirrored reflection effect—it's a good tool to get creative shots with perfect symmetry If there was ever an Instax Mini camera deserving of being called "pro," the Instax Mini Evo is it. The Instax Mini Evo is a beautiful homage to film cameras and one that nobody would be embarrassed to pull out at any event. Use your smartphone to control the camera. Get your shot set up then release the camera shutter using your phone as a remote control.

A further smaller, likewise unmarked, top plate button is a ‘reset’ button, for returning any lens and film effects to normal if it all gets a bit much. Despite the dials, snapping photos with the Instax Mini Evo is a push-button experience. The camera has two shutter releases—one at the top, for when you hold it in landscape orientation, and a front button to use when you hold the camera vertically for portraits or selfies. A mirror next to the lens helps you frame self-portraits. Controls feel a little cramped, but get the job done. There are more external buttons than the average instant camera too. Not only do we get a shutter release button on the top plate, but also a second one on the faceplate, next to a built-in mirror for the selfie obsessed and a small lozenge shaped window housing an integral flash. Instax prints have an iconic quality to them and the mini Evo is no different. Whether you opt for ‘instax-Natural Mode’ for conventional image quality or ‘instax-Rich Mode’ for vibrant colours. Change how you express yourself in every image.You're limited in what images you can send to your smartphone—the Mini Evo only sends photos that have already been printed via Bluetooth

Approximately 16 seconds. When using instax-Rich Mode immediately after startup printing may take an additional 7 seconds. What film does the Fujifilm instax mini Evo use? The 3-inch screen is not a touchscreen, but it’s large enough to show you exactly what you shot. Raymond Wong / InputI am not being hyperbolic when I say Fujifilm’s Instax Mini Evo is the greatest instant camera ever made. You can toggle the flash, dial in up to two stops of exposure and view the finished shot before committing to a print. Additionally, you’re able to print multiple copies of the same shot and even continue shooting should you run out of film. The Evo (left) draws its inspiration from classic camera designs like the Leica M11 (right) (Photo: Jim Fisher) Gavin has over 30 year experience of writing about photography and television. He is currently the editor of British Photographic Industry News, and previously served as editor of Which Digital Camera and deputy editor of Total Digital Photography.