These are the best instant cameras you can buy

With an affordable price tag, a great design and the ability to produce fantastic smaller-sized snaps, the Instax Mini 12 is the best instant camera on the market right now.

This camera has a funky, lightweight design in a choice of five pastel colours. The new twistable lens means that it’s even simpler to use than the last generation camera, the Mini 11.

It comes with an auto-exposure mode and flash, meaning that it can capture some shots in low light – though both extremely dark and bright conditions aren’t the best for pictures. However, users can use the Instax Up! app to digitally upload photos and edit them, should they wish.

Images are printed on Instax’s Mini film, which produces pocket-sized polaroid-style photos. This instant camera is especially a compelling option for younger audiences with not much photography experience. 

The Mini 99 from Instax produces credit card-sized prints, just like the (cheaper) Mini 12 does. What sets it apart is its wide range of adjustments.

This instant camera boasts five colour filters, five exposure compensation options and four shooting options, including Double Exposure and Bulb modes. By mixing and matching, users can create some truly unique and artistic prints.

It can take some experimentation and practice to get right, so this camera is certainly not for casual users – the high price tag may also put people off. Nonetheless, this is the most comprehensive Instax to date, and will appeal to anyone who wants the best of the best.

The Instax Mini Evo from Fujifilm combines all the bells and whistles of a classic digital camera with the novelty of an instant camera.

But you don’t just have to print snaps taken on the Evo – it can also connect to your phone and print photos, just like a standard portable printer.

Combining the digital camera features with analogue buttons results in a fun shooting experience, and the fact that it doubles as an instant printer is the icing on the cake.

It looks more professional than cheaper Instax models, with a retro-inspired design. That said, be prepared to spend a pretty penny to get your hands on one.

The Instax SQ1 is Fujifilm’s second fully analogue square format camera, and it’s a simplified version of the old SQ6, which is now hard to find in stock.

The SQ1 takes Instax Square film, which in turn means this is a bigger, chunkier camera than the Instax Minis. It comes in a similar range of attractive pastel colours though, and there’s a definite charm to the camera’s look.

This is another Instax that’s designed to be as simple to use as possible. There are only two shooting modes – regular, and a selfie/macro mode you access by twisting the lens round. You can’t even turn the flash off. 

We wish it had a few more options to be honest, especially given its price, but if you want an easy-to-use Instax that shoots on square film, this is your best bet.

The Instax Mini LiPlay is a slightly cheaper precursor to the Mini Evo, above. We prefer the newer Evo, but the LiPlay is a great option if you can find it for less.

The camera is also an instant printer, which allows you to print photos directly from your smartphone via the companion app very easily on to the Instax Mini film.

It’s also generally an easy camera to navigate. The design is user-friendly, and you can choose from a number of different shooting options to enhance your experience. The camera itself is enough to give you a decent-quality image, with a little flair if you wish. However, the design may not be to everyone’s tastes.

The Mini LiPlay lets you record audio and play it back via QR codes, though this feature may only be useful to a small portion of users. It sits just slightly higher than average on our price range, but the flexibility that this camera offers seems worth the extra bump in cost.

Even by the standards of instant cameras, this is driven by nostalgia. The blocky plastic design screams ‘retro’, accentuated by the textured faux-leather finish and silver accents.

As the name suggests, the Mini 40 takes Instax Mini format prints, and in fact this is essentially the same camera as the Mini 11 above – the functionality is almost identical, with the higher price driven by the premium, retro design.

That means simple features: a flash, a selfie mirror, and two focal length settings. You don’t get a lot of flexibility, but the simplicity is welcome when you just want to point and shoot.

If you’re not fussed by the design then save money and grab the Mini 11, but if you want an Instax Mini camera that feels like a camera, not a toy, then this is the one.

The Kodak Smile+ captures the happy middle ground between quality and budget. For a reasonable price, you get a compact and lightweight camera which supports microSD saving, and prints colour photos within a minute – though it’s worth noting that this is a digital camera that prints onto Zink paper, rather than an analogue camera that exposes real film.

Unlike the film used in an Instax Mini 12 camera, Zink paper uses heat to form images. Each sheet contains micro-crystals that produce either cyan, magenta or yellow hues depending on the intensity and duration of heat applied. When combined, you are left with the final image. This makes printing on the Smile+ more affordable too.

Colours are the most impressive when you have good lighting – but the prints can struggle with exposure. That said, there is an automatic flash available if you’re in darker conditions. The Kodak Smile+ is a budget-friendly tech toy best suited for casual point-and-shoot users, with the additional benefit of also being a portable printer with the companion app.

The Polaroid Now+ is our favourite of the company’s range of modern instant film cameras – especially if you know how to use it.

With a range of shooting options, supported by an app that enables remote controls and other modes, this is more complicated than some of the simple point-and-shoot cameras from Instax. That will appeal to capable photographers, but might put you off if you want something more straightforward.

Like other Polaroid cameras, it is big and bulky and the film runs fairly expensive – but that’s the price you pay (literally) for getting the classic Polaroid camera design and iconic large format square prints, which obviously up the appeal.

As the name might give away, the Instax Wide 300 takes photos that are wider than other instant cameras – double the size of Instax Mini photos. The camera itself has to be large enough to accommodate the bigger prints, and Fujifilm has committed to a chunky aesthetic all round, with a large grip and an enormous lens – the Instax Wide isn’t the most attractive instant camera around.

Controls are simple: two levels of autofocus for the 95mm lens, basic flash settings, and the option to reduce or increase exposure. It’s no surprise the Wide 300 excels at longer range, picking up more detail in landscape and building photos than its rivals, but struggling on close-ups or selfies – though the included close-up lens does help.

Portraits can turn out great once you get used to framing for landscape though, with warm skin tones. The new orientation is also great for parties – it takes a lot less work to cram multiple people into the same shot now.

The Instax Pal isn’t technically an instant camera – but if you have a printer such as the Mini Link 2, the Link Wide or the Square Link, then it could make a good complimentary product. In the US, it only comes as a bundle with the Link 2.

This pocket-sized digital camera can capture photos that can be printed with any complimentary Instax product. It performs best in bright daylight, and has some kooky features such as the ability to record your own shutter sound, and animations for the snaps you capture.

That said, it is overpriced for what it is – especially when you consider that there’s no viewfinder, which makes taking photos difficult. It’s only best for people who already have a printer or those who want a teeny tiny digital camera.