It’s one of the most important factors to consider before buying an instant camera: The price of film. But which one is the cheapest?
TL;DR: At a regular price, with Zink papers you’ll get the most photos for your money. It’s currently around 50 cents per photo.
Why the cheapest film might not be ideal for you
While Zink papers, bought in large quantities, are the cheapest instant camera film, it might not be a film for you. When most people think of instant or Polaroid cameras, they have a clear picture in their mind: Polaroid’s iconic instant film. With its square format, it became the standard for instant film in general. But modern films, like Zink or Instax Mini Film, often disappoint expectations with their “credit card format”. Zink film also lacks the white frame you might expect from a Polaroid picture. Tip: We compared cameras by image format here.
Square Film is expensive
While the best-selling instant camera Instax Mini 11 uses a rather cheap 2×3 film (>$0.7/photo), fans of the classic format usually pay (a lot) more for their photos. One sheet for the popular Polaroid Now Plus costs beyond $1.5. And the Instax Square format comes at a higher price too. Another important rule of thumb for Polaroid cameras is: The older the camera, the higher the price. So is the 600 film used in vintage Polaroid 600 models even more expensive than the i-Type film (here we explain the reason).
Conclusion
We do strongly recommend thinking about the costs per photo before buying an instant camera. But at the end of the day, it comes down to a decision about camera style, image format and follow-up costs. Here are some resources you might enjoy: