00:04The Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema is like any other instant camera I've tried in my years of
00:10testing gear and the complete retro experience that this format was made for. The Evo Cinema
00:15is lo-fi and trust me, it's the retro instant camera to take travelling and to parties. At
00:20launch it costs 410 bucks or £329. You can check out the best deals on the Fujifilm Instax Mini
00:26Evo Cinema in the description box below plus a link to my in-depth hands-on but stick with me
00:31here for my five minute review starting with design. I've previously tested the Mini Evo,
00:40another digital instant camera which looks like a regular compact camera but this cinema version
00:45adds video recording and is packaged in a wildly different Super 8 style body. The body is
00:50particularly slimline and designed to be held vertically. With a pistol-like grip your index
00:55finger naturally rests on the shutter button like a trigger. You press it to take photos or press and
01:02hold to shoot video with a maximum clip length of 15 seconds. You can customize to a single press to
01:08record video too but I prefer the authentic press and hold for video recording not least of which to
01:13avoid accidental recordings. Fujifilm provides a grip extension with the camera but honestly I could
01:19take or leave it because it hardly impacts the camera's handling. What is a useful accessory however
01:24is the viewfinder eye cup which comes included too. It attaches magnetically and clicks into place over
01:30the tiny 1.5 inch LCD screen which isn't touch sensitive by the way enabling a clear view in bright
01:36light but again for a more authentic Super 8 like shooting experience. There are several buttons and
01:41controls around the camera worth mentioning one of which is a lift and twist lever used for instant printing.
01:46It's easy to forget that this slim camera can hold a pack of Instax Mini film inside for instant photo
01:51prints.
01:52A single pack of 10 prints will set you back around nine dollars or eight pounds. Another control is the
01:57digital zoom lever. I really use this because the Mini Evo Cinema's image quality well it's sketchy at best
02:02let's just say but more on this later. The 28mm f2 lens is a moderate wide angle optic much like
02:09similar
02:09perspective to the main camera on your smartphone and it has a ring around it which can scroll through the
02:14colour profiles. Above the lens is a selfie mirror which is barely helpful plus a tiny LED flashlight which is
02:20useful for indoor
02:21party portraits even if it's not very powerful. And then there's the main feature the main event an era's dial.
02:32The era's dial offers a look for every decade starting from the 1930s through to today the 2020
02:38setting. Fujifilm says these looks pay homage to the characteristics media and playback devices that
02:44define that time. For example 1930s is a grainy monochrome, 1990s the old school handycam look,
02:50while 2020 is a crisp quality much like today's smartphones. Gimmicky? Well maybe for some but not
02:56for me. This is such a fun feature that I kept coming back to. Furthermore each of those 10 profiles
03:02which span the last 100 years can be fine-tuned on a scale of 1 to 10 using that lens
03:07ring either in strength
03:08or actual different styles. That makes 100 styles in all, all of which work for photos and videos.
03:14And if you think instant printing is just for photos, think again. The Mini Evo Cinema can print video.
03:20How? Well you select a video you've shot that you'd like to share and then the camera will pick a
03:26frame
03:26from that sequence, which can be changed, and print this frame with a QR code. You then scan the QR
03:32code
03:33and get directed to the video on the Instax site stored on Fujifilm's servers.
03:40The Instax instant photography aspect is well established, so the image quality is predictable,
03:46especially since the basic sensor hardware is essentially the same as the original Mini Evo.
03:51Put simply, don't expect excellent photo quality. The camera shoots lo-fi 5 megapixel JPEG photos
03:58through that 28mm lens, which are then saved onto microSD. From the camera's gallery, you can then
04:04select which images you'd like to print instantly onto Instax Mini paper using that analog's lift and
04:11twist lever. And video quality is equally lo-fi at just HD 720p, unless you have the high resolution
04:17option active specifically for the 2022 era setting alone, where video resolution can be doubled to 1440p.
04:25A frustrating, needless limitation on quality? Not so. It's authentic. And I prefer the digital hybrid
04:32setup to a fully analog instant camera, where the camera prints immediately on capture, whether it's
04:37a good photo or not. With the Mini Evo, you pick the shot you like for printing, meaning less wasted
04:43prints. Sure, it's not one for analog purists, but I'd rather not waste my money on throwaway prints.
04:49One frustrating experience using the Mini Evo cinema is its slow operation. Every time you change a
04:54setting or take a photo or a video, the spinny wheel of doom pops up on the screen as the
04:59camera makes
04:59those changes or processes images before it's ready to operate again, the way is even longer after
05:05recording video clips. And I've had two samples of the camera and had the same issue with both of them.
05:10In fact, one time the camera completely froze up and the only solution was to leave it be until the
05:15battery fully drained. Once I charged it up again and turned it back on, all seemed well again.
05:19These issues could be bugs with the current firmware that could be addressed in the future,
05:24but I'd be remiss not to mention them now.
05:30Forget technical quality, of which there's little. The Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema is a retro
05:36masterstroke, an homage to photographic history wrapped in a slick Super 8-style skin. It seems obvious
05:42to say, but the addition of video recording adds a whole other layer to the Evo Cinema versus its
05:47stablemates. Far from being a novel instant camera alone, destined for a short use life,
05:52it has those video features to play with, along with a combination of 100 possible styles to try out.
05:58Yes, those 3-in-1 skills are a delicious mix, yet it's perhaps the design of the camera which steered
06:02me
06:02to video recording most of all. Some camera critics will probably slam this as one of the worst cameras
06:08this year, but don't listen to the haters. They are missing the point because it's a perfectly executed
06:13retro concept. But what do you think? Is the Mini Evo Cinema your kind of retro camera?
06:18Let us know in the comments below and check out the full review at TechRadar.com
Comments