Instax Pal Review: Pocket-Sized But Pricey

Price When Reviewed

$199 (only available with Mini Link 2)

Best Prices Today: Instax Pal

Fujifilm’s Instax brand is best known for its range of instant cameras and printers. However, the latest product, the Instax Pal, offers something a bit different.  

It’s a tiny digital camera that works in tandem with other Instax products such as the Mini Link 2 and Evo. It can be used to take snapshots on the go, and there are a range of other quirky features that are characteristic of the brand.  

Whether you’ll get use out of those features is another story. Here’s my experience using the Instax Pal.  

Design and Build  

• Smaller than your palm
• Five colours
• USB-C slot for charging

I never thought in my life I’d call a camera ‘cute’, but that’s the Instax Pal – it’s just so diddy.  

Measuring just 42.3 x 44.4 x 43mm and weighing 41g, it fits in the palm of your hand with ease, making it great for travelling (or getting a sneaky pic). It comes in a choice of five colours: black, white, blue, pink and green – which I tested.  

The front is dominated by the circular lens, and includes a flash – the controls of which can be tweaked in the accompanying app. There’s also a speaker, which plays cute droid-esque sounds when it’s booted up. On the top, there’s a power button (which lights up in funky colours when pressed), and on the back is a shooting button.  

I never thought in my life I’d call a camera ‘cute’, but that’s the Instax Pal

I found the shooting button to be extremely light to touch, to the point that I’d accidentally take snaps on the Pal – the app was full of blurry photos with my hand in the way as a result.  

The box also includes a rubber handle, which Instax claims doubles as a viewfinder, as it sits on the top of the camera. I wouldn’t say it works particularly well, as the position is higher than the eye line of the lens.   

The lack of an actual inbuilt viewfinder is one of my biggest gripes with the Instax Pal. It makes it difficult to shoot, as you’re often using guesswork to find the correct angle. You can use the accompanying app for remote shooting, which does help. However, there’s a slight delay when you move the camera around.  

For charging, there’s a UBC-C slot, and an accompanying cable is included in the box. There’s also a MicroSD slot for additional storage – the camera itself has space for up to 50 images. However, once you sync the camera to the Instax Pal app on your smartphone, photos will be removed from the camera’s internal storage.  

On the base, there’s a sliding switch to turn on the automatic printing mode, providing your printer is already linked in the Instax Pal app.  

The lithium ion battery can allegedly last for up to 240 shots on a single charge. While I can’t fully verify this claim, I didn’t manage to run down the battery during my time testing. According to the brand, the Pal takes two to three hours to charge from flat to full.

Features, Image Quality and App 

• Supports Mini, Wide and Square prints
• App compatible with iOS and Android
• Best results in daylight

The Instax Pal can take photos in all the print sizes that the brand offers: Mini, Wide and Square. If you want to print your snaps, you’ll have to link up to one of the Instax printers, or a hybrid digital model like the Evo.  

The Instax Pal has a 1/5in primary colour sensor, and exposure levels of -2.0 EV to +2.0 EV. Overall, images in bright daylight capture a good amount of detail and are vintage-style with slightly muted colours. However, shooting in dimmer lighting conditions – at night or even indoors – produces poor results.  

The app does allow you to edit the images, including altering the saturation and the brightness. However, these edits can only do so much. You can also crop images, should you get anything in your shot that you don’t want.  

While this is just a small digital camera, there are some playful – if slightly odd – features that Instax has included. You can customise your own shutter sound with a recording, and the app automatically collates a series of photos and creates collage-style animations.  

There are also the standard features you’d expect from an Instax camera, such as self-timers and multi-shooting modes. You can save the digital images to your camera roll, but as I said, the quality is not the best and unlikely to be anywhere near as impressive as your smartphone photos.  

When you print a photo, you’ll be taken automatically to the app for the printer. It would have been a better, more streamlined experience if Fujifilm had managed to get the whole process into a single app. 

Shooting in dimmer lighting conditions – at night or even indoors – produces poor results

Price and Availability 

Sadly, the price is what really lets the Instax Pal down. In the UK, you can get the camera by itself for £89.99. In the US, it’s only available as a bundle with the Instax Mini Link 2 printer, for a total of $199.  

UK readers can buy the Instax Pal from Amazon, John Lewis and Boots, while those in the US can buy the bundle from Best Buy and B&H.  

It’s understandable that the product is sold like this, as it’s hard to get much use from the Pal as a solo digital camera. This is doubly true when you consider that the Instax Mini 12, a fully-fledged Polaroid-style instant camera, costs less than the Pal. It’s only useful if you already have an Instax printer and want another gadget for the ecosystem. 

The main benefit of getting a digital Instax model is that you won’t have to worry about wasting prints. To see some alternative options, check out our charts of the best instant cameras and the best portable printers.  

Should I buy the Instax Pal?

The Instax Pal’s price means that it’s only useful for two niche audiences: those who already own an Instax printer, or those who have cash to spare.  

It certainly looks cute and has some kooky features that I’ve not seen before on a camera. However, for a better shooting experience I’d recommend the Instax Evo, which includes a viewfinder and has a more premium feel. If that’s out of your price range, then a classic instant camera or portable printer will still yield a better experience.  

Specs

• Maximum resolution print of 2560 x 1920p
• 1/5in image sensor
• CMOS with primary colour filter
• Internal storage for up to 50 images
• Slot for a microSD card up to 1GB
• 1.4 sec shutter speed
• Focus range up to 16.25 mm 
• F2.2 Aperture
• Auto or optional flash
• Self timer for 2 sec to 10 sec
• Hand strap/viewfinder
• USB-C charging port
• Companion app for iOS and Android
• Requires Instax printer or camera hybrid for prints
• 42.3 x 44.4 x 43.0mm
• 41g