Fujifilm Instax Pal 2 review: the cutest and priciest toy camera around

Date:
Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Description:
The Instax Pal 2 is a cutesy 10MP digital camera with pocket-friendly dimensions, twin displays, multi-sensory controls and wireless image uploads but it's not perfect.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Fujifilm
Instax Pal 2: Two-minute review Ive never seen my teenage son more animated about a camera than he was about the Instax Pal 2 and hes seen his fair
share over the course of my years reviewing gear.

Its tactile and sensory, with its exaggerated sound effects, clicky winding lever, joystick, dampened dial, and pop-out USB-C connector. For my son, it was like a fidget toy. And I have to confess it was for me too. The emphasis here is on toy, mind you he could happily fiddle with the controls for hours without taking a single photo. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

Even with my Serious Camera Reviewer hat on, Im enamored with the Pal 2; it's cute, it's dinky, and theres enough here to keep my attention.

There's the winding lever that scrolls through the Instax mini, square and wide film formats (or no border at all); the dampened dial for the various picture effects; the joystick that you use to navigate a sub-menu with
options for self-timer, flash and display modes, and which you can also press to open the main menu.

Then theres the cut-out optical viewfinder, and a top-down, 1.3-inch screen for waist-level photography, a red playback button and clear back button. Every control is unique, and characterful.

Fujifilm s design department clearly knows its market the Pal 2 is latest
in a long line of quirky, retro fun models that include the original Pal ,
the X half and the Instax Mini Evo Cinema . Get daily insight, inspiration
and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. The camera comes with a selfie prop that angles the camera up when it's rested on a surface, and it's secured by pushing it around the lens. (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Instax Pal 2 at Jessops for 144.99 In a way its easy to forget that this palm-sized bundle of retro fun is a camera at all; but that's what it is, and its one with very basic tech inside: a tiny 1/3.06-inch sensor with 10MP JPEG photos, shot through a 28mm equivalent f/2.2 lens, with an LED flash for close-up
low-light shots. There's no video here, just a 10-shot Animation mode.

Its also Wi-Fi / Bluetooth-equipped, meaning users can wirelessly connect to
a smart device and use the Instax Pal app for image uploads and sharing (the Pal app wasn't updated for the Pal 2 at the time of my review), or to one of Fujifilms Instax link printers for uploads or direct printing onto Instax film. Theres that pop-out USB-C for charging, too.

But and it's a big but its very expensive. The Pal 2 is not priced like the toy camera it is.

You can get four Kodak Charmeras for the price of one Instax Pal 2 and have some change left over. Yes, the Pal 2 is more camera than the Charmera in every way, but they are in the same novelty camera category, and the Charmera knows its place better.

Yes, my son loves the Pal 2, but its not in pocket-money saving territory,
and it would be a stretch as a birthday gift.

It's easy to be won over by the Pal 2 this is a retro, pocket digital camera with wireless image uploads and Instax printing. But when the Instax Mini Evo costs the same, and that camera has a larger body and screen, and can print images selected from the gallery directly, the Pal 2 feels like a stretch. If its price comes down, like the X half's did (by about 40%), then it might be
a different picture. Fujifilm Instax Pal 2 review: Price and release date The top LCD can display the picture style as if you have a film loaded, or liveview. (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Announced in September 2026 Priced at $169.95 / 149.99 / AU$249 Available in two colorways; black with silver trim, or white with silver trim The Fujifilm Instax Pal 2 costs $169.95 / 149.99 / AU$249 and is available in two colorways: black with silver trim, or white with silver trim. It comes with a small rubber selfie stand, which fixes in place by slotting around the lens, and a wrist strap. Today's best Instax Pal 2 deals 144.99 View 144.99 View No price information Check Amazon We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices Fujifilm Instax Pal 2 review: specs Swipe to scroll horizontally Fujifilm Instax Pal 2

Type:

Digital compact camera

Lens

28mm f/2.2

Sensor

1/3.06-inch CMOS

Photo resolution:

10MP

Video resolution:

N/A

Storage:

Internal memory up to 100 shots, microSD card slot

Screen:

1.3-inch LCD, 170k dots

Connectivity:

USB-C

Dimensions:

37 x 42 x 92.3mm (excluding projecting parts)

Weight:

3oz / 87g Fujifilm Instax Pal 2 review: Design Image 1 of 3 (Image credit:
Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Image 1 of 3 View Original Image 2 of 3 View Original Image 3 of 3 View Original Weighs just 3oz / 87g, fits in a pocket Cool retro look and multi-sensory controls Twin displays: LCD and cutout optical viewfinder It might share the name as the original Pal, but the two cameras bear little resemblance to each other. The original Pals golf ball-like exterior is cast aside in favor of retro-style, mini Fujifilm camera-like body.

Fujifilm has packed a lot of controls and features into the tiny, palm-sized body, including a cut-out viewfinder, 1.3-inch top LCD, winding lever, on/off dial, a joystick set within another dial, playback and back buttons, a
pop-out USB-C, and a tiny selfie mirror, tripod mount, microSD card slot, and LED flash.

Each control has its own distinct character, and it took me no time at all to memorize each one, meaning I could instinctively locate them. Image 1 of 7 (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Image 1 of 7 View Original Image 2 of 7 View Original Image 3 of 7 View Original Image 4 of 7 View Original Image 5 of 7 View Original Image 6 of 7 View Original Image 7 of 7 View Original For the most part, I only found myself scrolling through the Instax film types (glorified aspect ratios) using the winding lever, and
using the six picture styles, and the flash settings, self-timer and display mode options in the sub-menu. Theres little else to experiment with, besides perhaps exposure compensation, which is buried in the menu.

You can choose whether to display the selected picture style on the LCD display (kind of like a film roll), or the live view, when composing images. I'd hardly say composition is critical though, because the lens is a wide-angle 28mm optic, meaning you can blindly point the Pal 2 in the direction of your subject and it will be in the shot.

Theres plenty to like about the design of the Instax Pal 2. Its a highly enjoyable camera to play around with, and it earned plenty of admiring comments from other tech journalists when I was attending another event. Fujifilm Instax Pal 2 review: Performance The Animation mode takes up to 10 photos consecutive and compile them into an animation (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Wide-angle 28mm f/2.2 lens 10MP JPEGs, plus a 10-shot animation mode Bluetooth / Wi-Fi equipped for wireless image uploads and printing The charming, tactile and dinky design is the major appeal of the Instax Pal 2 youre not buying it for its technically impressive images and high-speed performance.

Take the JPEG-only photos (up to 10MP, depending on the aspect ratio) from
the tiny 1/3.06-inch sensor and 28mm f/2.2 lens. There's no getting away from the fact they're lo-fi images; they're Better than the Charmeras, but no
match for your phones.

Dont expect much detail in highlights, either they blow out with the cameras exposure metering left to its own devices, although 2EV exposure compensation is buried in the cameras main menu, so it is possibly to go for dark, moody photos too.

The six color profiles are all towards the vintage end of the scale, with options for Soft, Muted, Cool, Flare, Mono and Pure (see below). If you want
a punchy, vivid setting, youre out of luck. The picture style and aspect
ratio used at the time of shooting, whether thats mini, square, wide or no border, are locked in.

Technically this is a photo-only camera, but if you turn the winding lever clockwise (instead of counter clockwise for the Instax film borders), you can enter a burst-shooting 'animation' mode that takes up to 10 photos in a sequence and then pieces them into a single stop motion-like clip (see
above). Image 1 of 6 'Flare' picture style (Image credit: Tim Coleman) 'Mono' picture style (Image credit: Tim Coleman) 'Pure' picture style (Image credit: Tim Coleman) 'Cool' picture style (Image credit: Tim Coleman) 'Muted' picture style (Image credit: Tim Coleman) 'Soft' picture style (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Image 1 of 6 View Original Image 2 of 6 View Original Image 3 of 6 View Original Image 4 of 6 View Original Image 5 of 6 View Original Image 6
of 6 View Original Theres a built-in battery that's recharged through USB-C and youll need to do that regularly, because battery life is poor. A combination of me playing around with the camera settings and taking around 50-75 images saw battery life depleted by three quarters, so youll struggle
to get through a full day of shooting.

Shutter lag the time between pressing the shutter button and the camera actually taking the photo can get really frustrating, and its made worse
with the LED flash active. You'll need to hold the camera steady after pressing the shutter, and hope that your subject stays still, otherwise
you'll miss the shot

I had the flash mostly set to auto, and it mostly only fired in low light this isnt a flash-on for every photo setup, as is the case with some Instax mini cameras.

As with any wide-angle camera, but especially so with the Pal 2's small picture size, it pays to have your subject close and filling the frame to maximize the impact of the photo this isnt a camera for taking landscape images, in which detail will be lost.

A curiosity is that the camera limits users to 100 shots between connections to the Pal app, whether that's shooting onto the internal memory or the microSD card. This isn't an issue when shooting onto the internal memory, since there's only space for 100 shots, but I found it a frustrating and unnecessary restriction when shooting to the card.

The original Instax Pal app is also designed for the Pal 2, but at the time
of writing there wasn't an update for the app, so I haven't been able to try it out with the latest camera yet. I'll update this review once I've tried wireless uploads and printing. Image 1 of 12 (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Flare picture style (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) With bright daylight, the camera will 'overexpose' without manual intervention (Image credit: Tim Coleman) So I dialled in -2EV exposure compensation, which is buried in the camera's menu, for a moody effect (Image credit: Tim Coleman) (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Image 1 of 12 View Original Image 2 of 12 View Original Image 3 of 12 View Original Image 4 of 12 View Original Image 5 of 12 View Original Image 6 of 12 View Original Image 7 of 12 View Original Image 8 of 12 View Original Image 9 of 12 View Original Image 10 of 12 View Original Image 11 of 12 View Original Image 12
of 12 View Original Should I buy the Fujifilm Instax Pal 2? Buy it if...

You love fun, tactile, cute cameras The Pal 2 got lots of admiring looks during my test period, and the multi-sensory controls are super-fun.

You want an Instax-like experience, but control over what you print As a digital-only camera, you choose which photos you'd like to print through the app, or via direct wireless connection with a mini Link Instax printer. Don't buy it if...

You just want a cheap toy camera At over four times the price of the Kodak Charmera, the Pal 2 is one expensive toy.

You need a responsive camera For me, shutter lag was the major drawback of the Pal 2 there were many occasions when I missed a moment, or the camera shot a photo after I'd moved the camera. Fujifilm Instax Pal 2 review: also consider

Kodak Charmera

If you simply want a tiny lo-fi camera, and really dont care about picture quality or app connectivity, the Charmera is a much more affordable alternative.

Read our Kodak Charmera review View Deal

Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo

Also retro-styled, the Mini Evo is a digital camera with instant printer
built in, and is all-round larger, including its screen. It's a similar price to the Instax Pal 2, and so it feels like better value, but its not
pocketable in the same way.

See our Instax Mini Evo review View Deal How I tested the Fujifilm Instax
Pal 2 (Image credit: Tim Coleman) Fujifilm loaned me the black and silver version of the Instax Pal 2 for three weeks I kept the camera with me at all times, and took it to China for a work trip I've shot around 150 photos using the various picture styles and aspect ratios (Instax borders) Instax loaned
me the black-with-silver-trim version of the Pal 2 for a few weeks, during which time Ive kept it on me as an everyday camera, and taken it to China on
a work trip.

Ive used the various picture effects, aspect ratios (Instax film types), the self-timer and the LED flash, and tried the 10-frame animation mode.

At the time of my review, the Instax Pal app wasn't updated for use with the Pal 2 (on Android, at least). I'll update this review once I've paired the camera with the app and used it properly. First reviewed: September 2026 Read more about how we test Instax Pal 2: Price Comparison 144.99 View 144.99 View No price information Check Amazon We check over 250 million products every
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