The Fuji Instax Wide Evo is a digital camera that prints images on Instax Film in
the Wide format. The camera specifications are at the end of the
page, taken from the Fuji website.
The box.
What's in the box (no film pack furnished): camera with cover, cable for charging, strap and a real printed manual.
The camera.
Cap taken off. On the front: Flash and selfie mirror, shutter lever and
switch for wide and normal lens setting. Next to the shutter lever:
charging lamp. Around the lens there is a setting ring.
Left side: folding ejection crank and lens effect dial. 10 lens
effects, you can cycle through them. No. 1 is "normal", no lens effect, the others are: light leak,
light prism, vignette, soft glow, double exposure, colour shift,
monochrome blur, colour gradient and beam flare. All are further adjustable
via the ring around the lens. Lens effects can be combined with other effects. If you get lost, there is a reset button next to the on/off button.
Right side: on/off switch, next to it, hardly visible: reset button for
all effects, film effect dial. 10 effects, mainly colour settings, also
B&W, no. 1 is "normal" again, the others are: vivid, warm, sky
blue, light green, magenta, sepia, monochrome, amber and summer.
Hidden under a rubber flap: USB (charge only), MicroSDCard slot. If you
want to save your photos, put a card. There is no access to the
internal memory.
Bottom. The tripod socket is to right, not in the middle, but at least
there is one. Under the lid you can access to the battery and
eventually change it.
On top of the camera, there is another effect button, the film style
button. Cycles through settings like time/date stamp and artificial
sprockets. There is an off position.
Camera back. Big LCD screen and setting buttons. The first is a 4-way
switch with no confirm in the middle. Towards the top: back opening
button.
Screen in photo mode. Easy access to the different settings via the buttons.
Screen in play or print mode. Again easy access to different setting and zoom.
Camera paired to a smartphone. You can print pictures from the camera or from your smartphone.
Camera in remote mode. There is life view on the phone screen.
Smartphone screen in remote mode.
The camera between the Wide Link printer and the new Instax 400. It's
not bigger than the printer except the lens which sticks out, much
smaller than the 400.
There are several things to do to prepare the camera. You have to
charge it completely, this might take 2 hours. Do not forget to peel
off the protection of the ejection slot. I did and as ejection is
strong, it ltfted the upper part of the housing partially, you can see
it on my photos. I could clip it back later. You should put a
MicroSDCard as there is no access to the internal memory and the
internal memory stores smaller files. Go throught the setting menu to
set your language and your preferences. Put a cartridge, the dark slide
ejcts automatically. Ready.
The
handling is fine. The plastic is solid, like a good
digital SLR, not cheap. Switching the camera on is fine and logical,
you turn the button a little and it lights up. The form of the camera
invites you to hold it with both of your hands, your thumbs within easy
reach of the dials or the buttons under the screen.
The
menu is well done and easy. With a 4-way switch and the OK button,
everything is
quickly accessible. The screen is fine, nothing to mention. The camera
is completely automatic, but there are all the settings of an ordinary
digital camera available. The photo can be printed immediately or
processed, lighten/darken etc. or printed later. To print a photo, you
have to unfold and turn the little handle. To do so, you have to shift
grip of the camera to one hand and turn with the other. This might be a
nice gadget that is hailed in all the early reviews, I would have
prefered a simple button. But you can go to play mode and print from there, in this case the OK button prints without the handle.
All handling is quick and logical. Focussing is
fast and reliable. You can get close to objects down to less than 10cm (!). The
camera keeps the parameters you put in, which is a good thing. It
writes .jpg files not so bad compared to what you could expect, given the
size of the sensor. The .jpg file is however modified according to the effect
settings. Keep this in mind and shoot a second version without filters
in case of. The filter cancel button is a very good idea.
In wide mode the camera takes ultrawide pictures, the equivalent of a 16mm small format lens. That's really ultrawide. Even in normal mode it's still wide, about 35mm equivalent. You can zoom into the photo before printing to get less wide pictures. In wide mode the camera writes 16MP files. Normal mode is only a crop
of the 16MP sensor, 5MP. As you can easily zoom into the picture before
printing, you better save the wide file. If you use he internal memory,
all files are cropped further. The 16MP pictures weigh about 3 MB, the 5 MP ones about 1 MB. They are quite OK, not oversharpened.
The
printed
photos are OK, nothing to say, to my taste they could be a tad sharper.
You'll get what you saw onthe screen. The printing speed is fast, it's
like the output of a
classic Instax photo, but it's quieter.
You need the dedicated app for this camera, there is no general Fuji Instant app for all your cameras and printers. Connecting to the smartphone is easy as well, start the app
and it will be connected. It reminds you if bluetooth isn't on. Why it
wants location data on, I don't know, at
least it doesn't share these
data, as it continues with data connection off.The
app is fine and easy to use. You can remote control your camera or
print photos from your smartphone. Download from the camera to your smartphone is very
restricted, the files are small and it lets you only download the
photos you already printed.
Some pictures taken with the camera. Photos scanned at
400dpi without any processing. The pictures are bigger on the screen
than the real photos (63x99mm), the real photos in your hand look much sharper:
So first one in about real size, it's the third of the series.
My Cologne veranda in winter disorder. Wide.
My Cologne house. Wide.
Sign in a parking lot, distance ~50cm.
Cologne, St. Pantaleon, bright winter sun light. Zoomed into the photo to get the equivalent of an Instax 300/400 shot.
Cologne, St. Pantaleon, normal mode which is a bit wider.
Cologne, St. Pantaleon, wide mode.
Entrance to St..Pantaleom in backlight and dark shade. Nice result. Wide.
Cologne, old tax offices (1930s) in sharp backlight of a bright winter sun. Good photo. Wide.
Cologne, Park St. Pantaleonin winter. Wide-
Cologne, Park St. Pantaleon. Normal mode.
Cologne city, Rothgerberbach, main threspassing road. Winter sun very bright and deep shades.
Camera picture from file, reduced to 1/4. If you want the original file, it is here (opens in a new window)
Zoomed into the photo.
Black & White film effect.
Vignette lens effect.
Cologne, an underground railway ramp, the upper part in glaring sun, the rails in the shade. Good job.
Closest focus (without macro mode), about 7cm from the lens. Focus on the rose to the right. The left one is about 8cm away, slightly out of focus.
I
like hybrid cameras, you have less spoilt pictures. And no problem in winter with prints to shielded from the cold. You can print them later at home with a hot coffe at your side. The results are nice, printing could be a tad sharper, but it's fine. For normal use and direct printing the normal mode will be the most easy one, as the wide mode is really ultrawide. But remember that you can zoom into the wide photos and have the same results. I love this camera, no wasted photos and easy multiple prints in case of. Compared to non-hybrid Instax Wide cameras it is small and lightweight. Handling is superb, although there are so many possibilities, you can easily get what you want. A very good product indeed.
The camera specifications taken from the Fuji website:
Camera Function
Image sensor: 1/3-inch CMOS with primary color filter
Number of recorded pixels: 4608 × 3456 (WIDE ANGLE switch ON
& Micro SD card inserted) 2560 × 1920 (Others)
Storage media: Internal memory, microSD/microSDHC memory card
Storage capacity: ~45 images on the internal memory, WIDE ANGLE switch
ON: ~280 images, WIDE ANGLE switch OFF: ~850 images per 1 GB in
microSD/microSDHC card
Recording method: DCF compliant Exif Ver 2.3
Focus distance: f = 16 mm (35mm film equivalent)
Aperture: F2.4
Auto focus: Single AF, Face recognition AF (on/off) (with auxiliary light)
Shooting distance: 10 cm to ∞
Shutter speed: 1/4 second to 1/8000 second (automatic switching)
Shooting sensitivity: ISO100 to 1600 (automatic switching)
Exposure control: Program AE
Exposure compensation: −2.0 EV to +2.0 EV (1/3 EV step)
Metering method: TTL 256 split metering, multi metering
White balance: Auto, Fine, Shade, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, Fluorescent 3, Incandescent
Flash: AUTO FLASH/FORCED FLASH/SUPPRESSED FLASH
Shooting range with flash: ~30 cm to 1.5 m
Self-timer: ~2 seconds / ~10 seconds
Image effects:10 lens effects with degree control functions, 10 film effects and 6 film styles
Print function
Exposure pixel count: 1600 × 1260 dots (800 × 1260 dots when printed from smartphone app)
Exposure resolution: 25 dots/mm × 12.5 dots/mm (635 × 318 dpi, 40 x 80
μm dot pitch), 12.5 dots/mm when printed from smartphone app (318 dpi,
80 μm dot pitch)
Exposure gradation: RGB gradation of 256 colors
Interface:Standard compliance: Bluetooth Ver. 5.1
Printable image format: From the camera’s internal memory or
microSD/microSDHC card: JPEG images taken with this camera. From a
smartphone: JPEG, PNG, HEIF
Print output time: ~16 seconds
Print function: Images on the internal memory and images on the memory card can be printed.
Other
Smartphone app linked functions: Smartphone image print function,
remote shooting function, printed image transfer function, firmware
upgrade function
LCD screen: 3.5-inch TFT color LCD screen
Pixel count: Approximately 460,000 dots
External interface: USB Type-C port (for charging only)
Power supply: Lithium-ion battery (internal type)
Possible number of printed images: ~100 (from full charge). The number of prints depends on the usage conditions.
Charging time: 2 to 3 hours. Charging time depends on the temperature.
Main unit dimensions: 138.7 mm × 125 mm × 62.8 mm (excluding projecting parts)
Main unit weight: ~490 g (film cartridge, recording media, and lens cap not included.)
Operating environment: Temperature: 5°C to 40°C. Humidity: 20% to 80% (no condensation)
Film used: FUJIFILM instant film “instax™ WIDE” (sold separately)
* The above specifications are subject to change for better performance.
