Instax vs Polaroid film: which instant film should you buy?

Instax vs Polaroid film comes down to one trade. On each maker's own UK store, £16.99 buys you 20 Instax mini shots or 8 Polaroids. Instax is cheaper, quicker and tougher. Polaroid is bigger, slower and moodier.

Instant film clearly isn't slowing down, either. On 20 October, Fujifilm announced another round of investment in Instax production. Here's how the two compare on each maker's own numbers, and which one fits how you shoot.

Instax vs Polaroid film at a glance

	Instax mini	Polaroid i-Type
Image area	62 x 46 mm	79 x 77 mm
Whole print	86 x 54 mm	107 x 88 mm
Shots per pack	10 (sold here as a 20-shot twin pack)	8
UK store price	£16.99 for 20	£16.99 for 8
Cost per shot	About 85p	About £2.12
Film speed	ISO 800	ASA 640
Develop time	About 90 seconds	10 to 15 minutes
Temperature	Works from 5°C to 40°C	Best from 13°C to 28°C

Prices are from Fujifilm's and Polaroid's UK stores on 31 October 2026, and they change. Polaroid's price falls to £15 a pack if you buy five, which brings it to about £1.88 a shot. In the US, Polaroid lists the same pack at $18.99.

Instax also comes in two bigger formats: SQUARE, with a 62 x 62 mm image, and WIDE, at 99 x 62 mm.

Price per shot isn't the whole story

The per-shot gap looks brutal, but you're comparing very different pieces of film. A Polaroid image is about 61 square centimetres. An Instax mini image is about 29. That's roughly twice the picture.

Run the sums per square centimetre of image, and the gap nearly disappears: about 3.5p for Polaroid against 3p for Instax mini. You aren't paying a huge premium for the Polaroid name. You're mostly paying for size.

So the real question is whether you want a bigger picture or more pictures. For a party, 20 small frames will usually beat 8 big ones. For a portrait you plan to hang on the wall, the opposite is true.

How each film behaves

Instax is the easy one. Fujifilm says the ISO 800 film delivers vibrant colours and natural skin tones, and that the emulsion performs from 5°C to 40°C. Eject the print, wait about 90 seconds, and you're done.

Polaroid asks for more care. Polaroid sells its colour as "unique, unpredictable", and its support pages explain why you'll want to pay attention:

• Cold. Below 13°C, photos tend to come out overexposed and low in contrast, with a green tint. Polaroid suggests letting them develop in an inside jacket pocket.
• Heat. Above 28°C, colour photos can lean yellow or red. Chilling the pack first and developing somewhere cool helps.
• Light. The film stays sensitive after it's ejected, so keep it shielded from strong light, face down on a table or in a pocket.
• Age. Polaroid says to use film within 12 months of production, and to store it in the fridge but never the freezer. Let it warm up for at least an hour before shooting.

That fussiness is part of the appeal for some shooters, and a waste of £2 for others. Be honest about which one you are.

Which cameras take which film

Neither film works in the other's cameras, so your choice of film is really a choice of camera system.

• Instax: mini film works with all Instax mini cameras and mini smartphone printers. SQUARE and WIDE are different sizes, so buy for the format your camera takes.
• Polaroid i-Type: made for the Polaroid I-2, Flip, Mod, Now, Now+, OneStep 2 and OneStep+, plus the Polaroid Lab printer. Polaroid says it isn't compatible with vintage Polaroid cameras.

The Mod is the newcomer on that list. Analog.Cafe's September recap reported it on sale from Polaroid's website at $169.99.

Why Fujifilm is building more Instax film

Fujifilm's 20 October announcement is a useful sign of where instant film stands. The company is putting about 3 billion yen into new Instax film lines at its Ashigara Site in Japan. They'll start up in stages from spring 2027 and reach full operation from spring 2028.

Fujifilm's numbers tell the story:

• Capacity will rise by about 20% compared with FY2026.
• Since 2022, it has been investing toward a rise of about 70% compared with FY2022.
• Instax sales reached 200 billion yen in FY2025, a fifth straight record year.

Polaroid, for its part, describes its Netherlands plant as the world's last Polaroid film factory. It's a nice reminder that the film world is still moving, from Kodak's new film names to new production lines.

Which should you buy?

Choose Instax if:

1. You want more shots for your money.
2. You're shooting at parties, or handing the camera around.
3. You'll be shooting outdoors in winter or high summer.
4. You want the print in your hand in 90 seconds.

Choose Polaroid if:

1. You want the bigger, square-ish picture.
2. You like colour with a mind of its own.
3. You don't mind babysitting the film as it develops.
4. Each shot is an occasion, not a snapshot.

Where trycheese fits

Paying £2 a frame is part of the thrill of instant film, and part of why people look for film looks on their phones too. They're not the same thing. A phone won't give you a print to hand to a friend, and a film look doesn't replace one.

What trycheese borrows is the reveal. Our film looks are baked in, there's no live filter preview, and your photo develops for a beat before it appears, with grain, halation and filmic colour. If you're curious what's behind that look, here's what makes a photo look like film.

trycheese isn't out yet. It's coming to iPhone and Android together, free at launch. Until then, go burn a pack. It's what they're for.