Of course, you probably don’t buy an instant camera for its true-to-life image quality as much as for its immediacy and fun factor, and here the Lomo’Instant Wide excels. Bring it on a night out and it’s guaranteed to provide a few laughs as you pass it around and view your snaps moments after taking them. No, it’s not a particularly great camera for anything beyond snapshots and portraits, and I found its outdoor daytime performance to be generally unimpressive. But now that I’ve sent the Instant Wide back to its makers, I’ve found myself missing its analogue charms. In short, this is Lomography’s most accessible camera in a long time. That'll do for us.

User-friendly; Nice array of creative options; Charming and fun to use;

Patchy metering and exposure; Big and bulky;

Swappable lenses and an accessory pack give the Lomo'Instant Wide real flexibility, while its wide format prints have real charm. That both the price and camera dimensions are quite so big holds it back.

One of only a few wide format instant cameras; Lomo format and accessories more flexible than rival cameras; Simple point and shoot operation;

Expensive to buy, and film is costly as well; One of the bulkiest instant cameras; Takes practice and patience to achieve crisp shots;

We're swimming in a world of full-frame shooters with ultra high pixel counts, incredible low-light performance, and jaw-dropping video features. But what if that's not what you want? Instant film has enjoyed a renaissance in our digital world, giving creatives a more artistic outlet for their work, one that delivers a tangible result and is rife with unpredictable results. No cameramaker embraces that style of imaging more than Lomography, which strives to develop analog tools and imperfect lenses. Its first square format instant camera, the Lomo'Instant Square ($199), is a fine example of this, and a lot of fun to use. It's got a sharp lens, a folding design, and gives you the nostalgic, square instant format at a much more affordable cost per image than you get from Polaroid Originals (formerly the Impossible Project). Design The Lomo'Instant Square is a striking example of design. It's retro chic, with a folding body that adds to the aesthetic, but also serves the practical p...

The Lomography Lomo'Instant Square is the first true analog camera to use Instax Square film. It also has a nifty folding design and a seriously sharp lens.

Purely analog instant camera; Glass lens; Folding design; Automatic exposure; Multiple exposure support; Built-in flash; Includes wireless remote

Tricky viewfinder parallax; Some trial and error; Instax Square film costs more than other formats; CR2 batteries aren't as common as AA

The Lomography Lomo'Instant Automat ($149) refines the design of the older Lomo'Instant($99.99 at Amazon). It adds automatic exposure control, is available in several colors, and is a heck of a lot of fun to use. You pay a premium when compared with inexpensive Instax cameras like the Fujifilm Mini 8 ($69.95), but you get some additional features, including multiple exposures, flash supression, and exposure compensation. I prefer the larger Instax Wide format, used by our Editors' Choice Lomography Lomo'Instant Wide($199.00 at Amazon), but with larger film comes a larger camera. If small size is a priority, the Automat is a solid alternative. Design The Automat( at Amazon) is light and compact for an instant camera. It measures 3.5 by 4.5 by 2.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 12.5 ounces. Compare that with the original Lomo'Instant, which uses the same film but measures 3.8 by 5.5 by 2.2 inches and weighs 13.4 ounces. It's available in Bora Bora (white) and Playa Jardín (black) versions ...

The Lomography Lomo'Instant Automat improves upon the original, adding automatic exposure control for easier snapshots.

Fun to use; Instax Mini film readily available; Wide-angle lens; Automatic exposure; Built-in flash; Selfie mirror; Multiple exposure support; Accessory lenses available

CR2 batteries can be hard to find; Mini film format is small

The Lomography Lomo'Instant ($119) is the company's first attempt at a dedicated instant camera, and it's a fun one. It uses the Instax Mini film format, which captures photos about 2.4 by 1.8 inches in size. The camera has a built-in flash, but also supports manual aperture control for use in bright conditions, a bulb mode for long exposures, and multiple exposures on a single frame of instant film. I would have liked to see Lomo design a model around the larger Instax Wide format, but if you don't mind the smaller Mini frames, the Lomo'Instant is a camera with which you can have a lot of fun. The biggest downside is price—Instax Mini runs about $0.75 per shot, which is a lot less than the larger Impossible Project Polaroid film, but can still add up if you're shooting in higher volumes. So why shoot instant film? There's certainly a factor of nostalgia involved for those of a certain age—I used the Lomo'Instant($99.99 at Amazon) at a birthday party attended by 30-somethings and...

The Lomography Lomo'Instant is a fun instant camera with a wide-angle lens and support for multiple exposures.

Fun to use; Instax Mini film is easy to find; Wide-angle prime lens; Built-in flash; Supports multiple exposures; Adjustable f-stop; Bulb exposure mode; Focuses to 0.4-meter; Optical viewfinder; Front mirror for selfies

Uses smaller Instax film size; Regular use can be expensive; Fixed 1/125-second shutter speed

Instant cameras make for a refreshing change of pace from snapping with your smartphone. After all, why bother with apps and filters when you can just point, shoot and get a print straight away? The Automat takes a great photo out of the box, but it’s the flexibility that makes us really love it. The fisheye lens might not be the best added extra, but the other attachments work well and the flash gels are a nice bonus. At £179, it’s significantly cheaper than the Leica Sofort, too - which shoots the same Fuji Instax film but doesn’t come with any of the accessories. If you’re looking to add an instant camera to your collection, but don’t want all your snaps to end up looking the same, you should definitely pick up one of these.

Fun and versatile thanks to extra lenses; Colourful physical photos with retro charm; Multi-exposure mode is a nice extra;

Off-angle viewfinder makes it hard to frame your snaps; CR2 batteries? Not exactly easy to come by;

Easy to use; Can create multiple exposures;

Small and expensive film; Lack of manual control option;