Fujifilm Instax Wide 400 Review: Back to Basics

Aug 30, 2024

Chris Niccolls

Fujifilm Instax instant film brings in a huge amount of income to its imaging division and is a cornerstone of Fujifilm’s dominance in the analog arena. With that much popularity, it’s odd that we’ve had to wait so long for a new entry in the Wide series.

Instax cameras have become insanely popular as a fun gift for teenagers, a travel and wedding novelty, and as an easy way to get the analog look without needing too much expertise. The latest Fujifilm wide format camera is the Instax Wide 400, and it promises to bring back the basics to a new generation of instant film shooters.

Two people stand on an urban sidewalk. The person on the left, dressed in a plaid shirt and brown pants, holds a vintage camera. The person on the right, in a dark shirt, is using a modern camera. The background includes buildings and a parked car. — I shot the Fujifilm Instax Wide 400 and Alex and Jordan shot the Kodak 8mm. It was an analog adventure.

A close-up photo of a light green instant camera, focusing on the lens. The lens is labeled "INSTAX LENS 95mm" with "FOCUS RANGE 0.9m" written on it. The body of the camera features buttons and a flash near the lens. — The lens looks unchanged from the previous Fujifilm Instax Wide. It’s not the sharpest of optics but at least it uses the larger film.

Fujifilm Instax Wide 400 Review: How it Handles

And you better like basic because the Instax 400 is clearly aimed as an entry-level Instax camera for the uninitiated. I played with last year’s Fujifilm Instax Mini 99 which was a very creative camera with cool filter effects, albeit with the smaller mini format of film. However, Fujifilm hadn’t released a new wide-format camera in almost a decade so we didn’t know what to expect. It turns out that this Instax 400 is about as far as you can get from the Mini 99 camera, with a very friendly-looking and playful design that eschews almost all manual control.

A person stands outdoors holding a paper airplane. They are wearing a "PetaPixel" T-shirt and a pair of headphones around their neck. A car is visible in the background, parked next to a building. The image is in black and white. — Jordan loves bread. I feel like I captured his moment of joy and the Instax helped make it possible.

A light gray Instax Wide 400 instant camera is placed on a wooden surface against a dark background. The camera has a strap attached to it and two undeveloped instant film photos are laid in front of it. — The Instax Wide 400 is aimed at a casual crowd and has almost no manual controls to speak of.

The first thing you notice is the new Sage Green (the only color option available) which would be equally at home on a Subaru SUV. The camera is fairly chunky feeling with an excessively large grip that holds the four AA batteries as a power source. The camera weighs just over 21 ounces (600 grams) and the handling overall is a little difficult to grasp.

A man in a plaid shirt, baseball cap, and sunglasses leans against a whitewashed wall between a weathered door and a large window. The photo is black and white, and he holds an object in his left hand while looking off to the side. — Our good friend Alex Mitchell helped us with the Kodak 8mm camera and joined us on our road trip.

A gray Instax Wide 400 instant camera sits on a wooden surface against a dark background. The camera features a large lens, built-in flash, and various control buttons. — The new color scheme is nice. I like it, but it might not be to everyone’s taste.

The fit and finish are really nice, though. The dials and buttons don’t just look like basic plastic bits but are instead nicely molded with obvious attention to detail and everything clicks into place soundly. The strap lugs, metal film compartment release, and self-timer switch all look like they come from a prestigious camera despite the basic intentions.

A brightly colored fabric canopy, featuring pink and yellow shades, stretches overhead against a clear blue sky. Below, a white stucco building with large windows and a hanging basket filled with pink flowers can be seen. — Vibrant color is not the Fujifilm Instax’s forte. Usually, a cold color cast is present in the photos.

A stop sign mounted on a wooden pole with a hanging flower basket in front of an industrial building labeled "Husted Farms Ltd." The building is painted light green and appears to be part of a larger structure. The sky is clear and blue. — The cute town of Stavely is on the way to our final destination.

There is also a cool little square-shaped cut-out that fits the included plastic wedges to provide a secure and predictable way to prop the camera angle up for selfies and table-top pictures. No more jamming a smartphone under the camera to get it to point upwards.

Close-up view of the bottom-left corner of a light green camera resting on a dark wooden surface. The image showcases part of the camera's body, a small lanyard attached to it, and a black background. — The little square indent fits a collection of handy wedges to prop the camera up on tables.

A blue metallic mailbox unit with numbered compartments ranging from 1 to 14, positioned against a wooden fence and adjacent to a gray trash bin. The top of the unit is slightly rusted and the mailbox appears to be outdoors in daylight. — One of my main issues with the Wide 400 is the framing through the viewfinder. I farmed the mailbox to fill the image but so much more has been captured around the subject.

A black-and-white photograph of a brick building with the word "HOTEL" painted on it. A metal staircase leads to a door midway up the wall, with shadows cast by the staircase creating a diagonal pattern on the brick surface. A metal ladder extends above the door. — The Wide 400 is lightweight, but it’s a big package to carry around all day.

Fujifilm Instax Wide 400 Review: How it Shoots

What about the overall shooting experience? Well, one thing that bothered me right off the bat was the poorly calibrated frame lines. The small optical viewfinder has a couple of issues starting with the fact that the actual compositional aid is not centered in the viewfinder but rather is offset quite a ways. This takes some serious getting used to because my natural inclination is to center my eye and despite being aware of the issue I still fall for it every time.

A vintage sign for a Java Shop hangs from the side of a building. The sign includes an illustration of a chef holding a steaming cup of coffee. Below the main sign, another sign reads, "EAT OUT MORE OFTEN." The image is in black and white. — Fort Macleod is an adorable little town with plenty of fun stuff to shoot.

A grainy black-and-white photograph depicting the reflection of a person holding a camera in a store window. In the background, there is an old stone building with arched windows and a truck parked in front of it. — The flash will fire on its own when the camera thinks it’s appropriate. There is no way to force it to fire or turn it off.

A close-up photo of the viewfinder and body of a retro-style instant camera. The camera features a textured, light green exterior with a small black viewfinder and a slightly protruding flash unit on the right side. The background is blurred and dark. — I don’t love this viewfinder at all. Not even a little bit. The actual viewfinder isn’t even centered in the eyepiece.

I also found the frame lines to be calibrated for subjects about four to six feet away. This makes sense for the majority of family portraits and arms-length shots that we usually take however, even at close ranges the frame lines always capture too much outside the frame. Better to err on the side of caution I guess, but I like to frame fairly precisely and this camera was frustrating to compose with. When using the up-close parallax corrected frame lines, I found the framing to be far more accurate; macro shots it is, from now on.

A brick building with a sign that reads "Andy’s Saddle & Tack" on the window. Next to it, a light blue building with three garage doors. A small bush with yellow flowers and a black bench are in front of the buildings. The sky is clear and blue. — It took quite a while to get used to the framing of the images. With enough practice, it is predictable but hardly accurate.

A softly lit staircase ascends to a landing with two large, vertically aligned windows illuminating the area. A chandelier with intricate designs hangs from the ceiling. Sunlight streams through the windows, casting a glow on the wooden stairs and railing. — Part of the fun can be found in not worrying too much about perfect results.

On the flip side, composing with the curved mirror on the front of the camera for selfie shots was surprisingly more accurate than using the viewfinder, so make sure to take lots of photos of yourself at arm’s length. I liked the self-timer functionality where I get LED indicator lights to show four-, six-, eight-, or ten-second intervals of time. There is also a flash built-in to the Instax Wide 400 but the camera meter will decide whether to fire it or not. As a rule, there is no real manual control over exposure or flash, and focusing is done in the classic zone-focus setup.

Three men are smiling at the camera in an outdoor setting with a brick wall and buildings in the background. The man in the foreground is taking a selfie, holding the camera stick. It's a sunny day with clear visibility. — The selfie mode actually frames up very nicely. Focus is closer when shooting selfies but you lose some depth of field.

Close-up of a light gray Instax WIDE 400 camera with a reflective lens. A small part of a person's face is visible in the reflection of the camera lens, showing their eyes and forehead. The background is black. — This little clip-on selfie attachment is actually a close-up lens and the mirror to compose with is surprisingly accurate.

The lens seems to be the same 95mm lens from the older Instax Wide cameras which gives a roughly 35mm full-frame field of view. There are only two zones to focus within from either 0.9 meters to three meters, or three meters to infinity, but the photos are decently sharp and the wide format gives a much more noticeably pleasant viewing experience than the tiny mini format shots. Like all Instax shots, the exposure is sometimes a little over-exposed, and the colors are desaturated but frankly, that is the classic Instax look.

A rectangular planter filled with various flowering plants. Bright yellow and red-orange flowers bloom among green foliage. The background includes a brick wall and part of a light-colored building. Sunlight casts natural shadows over the scene. — There is no focus beyond choosing large zones to focus on but the wide format does give more detail than the mini format does.

Close-up image of a camera lens displaying focus distance markings. The markings indicate two focus ranges: "3.0m to infinity" and "0.9 to 3.0m." The lens surface has a textured, grid-like pattern. — Focusing is still just a basic far zone or near zone. It works well enough for most situations.

A Stylish, Beginner’s Camera

I think the Instax Wide 400 makes sense as a stylish beginner camera to win over a new generation of users with a very easy-to-use experience. Sadly, I am not the target audience of this camera and I constantly wanted more from the compositional aids and exposure tools on the 400.

I’m very excited about the possibility of a more creative and powerful camera like the Mini 99 but with the larger wide format so I will wait with bated breath. However, if you want a simple point-and-shoot experience or a nice gift with larger format images the Insatx 400 makes a lot of sense.

A single white cloud floats in a clear sky, framed by the silhouettes of tree leaves. String lights are visible, extending from the upper branches to a textured wall below. The image has a serene and calm atmosphere. — There are both color and black and white packs of Instax film to choose from. The cost is on the pricey side, however.

A man with a beard wearing a checkered shirt and a baseball cap leans against a dark-colored wall. He has a smartwatch on his left wrist, and sunglasses attached to his shirt. He's holding a drink can in his left hand and appears to be smiling slightly. — The fill flash is ok when things get dark. It has that direct point-and-shoot kind of look but it suits the instant film aesthetic.

Close-up of an Instax WIDE 400 instant camera in a grayish-green color. The camera features an automatic flash, adjustable lens, shutter button, and various controls. The ON/OFF switch is indicated by a small orange light on the front. — I like the flashy LED self-timer rig. In fact, all the controls and knobs are pretty nicely made.

Are There Alternatives?

The older Fujifilm Wide cameras can be found used but I would take a look at the Lomo Automat cameras or the Mint alternatives to get better lenses and more manual controls.

Should You Buy It?

Maybe. Whether this camera appeals to you will largely depend on how advanced an experience you want out of it, and I think many users will prefer to wait for even a modicum of manual control.