Instax Wide 400 hands-on review

First Impressions

The Instax Wide 400 is now the highest tier Instax camera for snapping large instant photos, replacing the Instax Wide 300 a full decade after its launch.

Introduction

It’s been 10 years since Fujifilm launched its last Instax Wide camera, the Instax Wide 300, leaving many fans wondering when the series would receive a long overdue update. 

Finally, that day is here. Fujifilm has announced the Instax Wide 400, a large instant camera with two focal lengths, a built-in self-timer and a handful of accessories that, when combined with the Wide film format, lend the camera well to group shots and landscapes. 

I was given the opportunity to try the camera out myself in London on the day of the launch. Here are my first impressions of the camera ahead of a full review.

Design

• The Instax Wide 400 is large but not heavy 
• The camera comes in one colour – Sage Green 
• The lens features two focal lengths 

The Instax Wide 400 is a large instant camera that measures slightly smaller than the Instax Wide 300 that came before it. 

While the camera is certainly large – even by Instax standards – the camera’s size facilitates the Wide film format, allowing you to print bigger photos than you can with the smaller Instax SQ40 or Instax Mini 12. 

I also found the Wide 400 to be surprisingly lightweight, which makes the camera ideal for taking on trips and days out this summer if you can spare the space in your bag. 

Design-wise, the Instax Wide 400 has also received a revamp. The silhouette of the camera is now much more rectangular compared to the Wide 300, which featured a viewfinder and grip that protruded from either side of the device. 

The camera also comes in a new Sage Green finish. I was slightly disappointed to hear that this was the only colour launching as I love the wide range of finishes available on the Mini 12 and Instax Pal. However, this neutral green shade is very stylish and a nice update over the black/silver and white/rose gold Wide 300 models. 

Finally, there’s the lens which features two focal lengths, one for shooting subjects 0.9 to 3m away and a landscape mode for capturing ones 3m away or further. The lens is also retractable, allowing it to twist away neatly when you’re done. 

Features and accessories

• The Wide 400 has a self-timer for group shots 
• There’s a tripod mount and a strap for angling the camera on a table 
• The camera also comes with a close-up lens attachment for selfies 

The Instax Wide 400 is a very simple camera with none of the shooting modes, manual exposure control, or colour effects found on the Instax Mini 99. There are, however, a handful of features and accessories worth noting. 

First is the self-timer. You can use the dial to choose anywhere between two and ten seconds in two-second increments. Then, simply press the shutter release button and watch the lights blink away one by one as the timer counts down. The camera also makes a noise to indicate that the timer is counting, making it easy to know when to say cheese when stepping back to snap group photos. 

I found the self-timer to be relatively easy to set up, though I did struggle to switch it off when I changed my mind. Luckily, the camera defaults to no timer between shots so this issue resolved itself after I took a picture. 

When it comes to positioning the camera for your group photos, the Wide 400 can be mounted on a tripod. It also comes with the camera angle adjustment accessory, a strap with two plastic blocks on it that can be used to prop the camera up and angle it at different levels provided you have a surface on which to stand the camera. 

Fujifilm also includes a close-up lens attachment in the bag, this is a small plastic lens with a mirror attached that makes posing for selfies a bit easier. The accessory snaps onto the end of the lens with a physical mechanism that feels a little nerve-wracking to push into place. However, once it’s on there, the attachment remains in place and shows no signs of budging. 

Lastly, there’s the built-in flash which is activated automatically in low light. 

Image quality  

• The Instax Wide 400 uses Instax Wide format film 
• Images are sharp with a slightly desaturated feel 
• The close-up lens works well for selfies but is trickier when shooting other subjects 

As you can probably guess from the name, the Wide 400 takes Instax’s Wide film. This is Instax’s largest instant film format, allowing for images that measure 62 x 99mm. 

I found the print time to be similar to every other Instax camera I’ve tested, meaning you should only need to wait a couple of minutes for the image to fully develop. 

While I can’t personally vouch that images from the Instax Wide 400 are higher quality than those produced by the Wide 300, due to not having used the older camera, I can say that the prints I shot with the Wide 400 are very sharp and detailed. 

I can pinpoint individual bricks in distant buildings when looking at a photo I captured with the landscape lens settings, while shots of the garden reveal a large amount of contrast between the deep shadows and white tiles and parasol. Colours, meanwhile, are slightly desaturated in a stylistic way, giving images a retro feel. 

I didn’t have as much luck taking macro shots with the close-up lens attachment as I did selfies, but this is something I’d want to explore more in a full review before giving my final verdict.

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