Fujifilm’s Instax Pal 2 out-charms the Kodak Charmera, but misses the point of these novelty cameras Timothy Coleman | usagoldmines.com

• Instax Pal 2 unveiled with new design that sings Kodak Charmera
• It’s more camera, mind you, and costs from $170 / £144.99 / AU$249
• There are two colorways at launch; black (with silver trim) or white

Instax has clearly taken note of the Kodak Charmera digital keychain camera’s viral popularity and wants a piece of the action. Enter: the new Instax Pal 2. Its new look is a major departure from the original golf ball-like Instax Pal — so much so that this camera could have had an entirely new name — and is instead all retro vibes.

There’s plenty going on in the tiny 1.5oz/ 41g body, mind you; twin displays (a top down 1-inch LCD screen, and a simple cutout optical viewfinder), a wind lever that adds an Instax frame around your photos, a film simulation dial with five picture styles (each with six unique effects), plus a slide out USB-C port for charging / connecting directing to a smartphone to upload your snaps.

Instax says there’s enough built-in memory to store 100 photos — which are 10.7MP and captured through a tiny 1/3.06-inch sensor — plus a micro SD card slot. The digital-only camera is also equipped with Bluetooth for wireless smartphone connection and printing, with direct support for Instax Link printers (a new Wide Link 2 printer was announced at the same time as the camera).

Should toys be this expensive?

The Instax Pal 2 carries on from where the Instax Mini Evo Cinema left off: it’s majorly quirky and packed with charm. However, it feels like too much camera, with too high a price tag, to hit the sort of sales heights of the Charmera, or even the screen-less Camp Snap cameras.

The Instax Pal 2 is easy on the eye, but sadly less so on the wallet — it comes in at $170 / £149.99 / AU$249 (while the Charmera is a mere $35 / £35 / AU$55). You can choose from two colorways: black with silver trim (pictured), or white.

I’m yet to play with the Instax Pal 2, but I’m sure it’ll put a smile on my face when I do. Even without testing it out, however, I get the feeling that it misses the point of these tiny toy cameras. So far, something a little less, that costs a whole lot less, has been the recipe for success.