About
The instax Pal 2 is a digital camera that does not print. Instax is a name tied to instant film, and this one leaves the photos on the camera and a phone instead, with a lever on the body that still frames each shot as mini, SQUARE, WIDE or No Frame.
That lever is the mechanism that matters. On a film Instax the format is fixed by the film pack. Here it is a choice made before the shutter, so the same camera can produce a small portrait crop or an uncropped frame. The app adds to this: 30 effects can be loaded onto the camera, so the look is set before the picture is taken, not applied afterwards. Holding the shutter button takes up to 10 consecutive shots, which are saved as an instax Animation, a flipbook-style clip.
Behind the lens sits a 1/3.06-inch CMOS sensor with an F2.2 lens. Shutter speed runs from 1/4 second to 1/8000 second and ISO from 100 to 1600, and both switch automatically, so there are no exposure controls to learn. Resolution can be set to 10 megapixels (3776 × 2832 pixels) or 1 megapixel (1280 × 960), saved as JPEG.
The Instax Pal 2 moves photos to a smartphone over USB Type-C at about 0.7 seconds per image, with Bluetooth 5.3 as the wireless route. The flash covers roughly 60 cm to 1.5 m, which suits close subjects and little else. The 1 megapixel setting is a deliberate low-resolution option, and it makes sense next to the frame lever and the effects.
