“You know it’s basically the same camera as the previous one, right?” Our Fujifilm reps warned me before I called it in. So, I’ll be honest with you: I’ve given up hope. I have learned to deal with mediocrity from the Instax division as opposed to the X Series and GF series — and even that’s questionable. Considering this, the Instax LiPLAY was my absolute favorite camera that Fujifilm Instax made previously. Though at the same time, no other brand has really made anything comparable. And how does one improve when they have nothing else to compare themselves to? In this case, comparison is the theft of joy.
Before we go on, know that Fujifilm sent us the Instax LiPlay 2 for keeps. In fact, we’ve been allowed to keep every Instax camera they’ve ever sent us. It doesn’t change our opinions, though—and it never has.
Ergonomically speaking, the Fujifilm Instax LiPlay 2 isn’t all that complex — and it’s not designed to consider who the audience is. There’s a shutter button, audio record button, preset buttons, and a very simple navigation. You can shoot an image and then print more than one copy of it — and that’s perhaps one of the absolute best things about this camera. It’s a digital/analog hybrid that’s very capable. It can’t do manual exposure settings. If anything, you should consider it to be a phone-camera with a printer built in. But in this situation, it’s lacking much of what a phone can do with fake bokeh and all. Instead, you get fun filters.
The Fujifilm Instax LiPlay 2 is a camera that shouldn’t really be judged by its innovations. To recap what we stated before, there’s nothing to compare it to. Could Fujifilm have taken a sensor the size of the one at the heart of the X30 and stuffed it into this camera? Sure, but they didn’t. Could Fujifilm have given users a higher-resolution LCD screen? Yes, but they didn’t. Where Fujifilm has made improvements for photographers who only care about printing out some Instax shots is with the charging situation. This time around, the Fujifilm Instax LiPlay 2 charges via USB-C.
Unfortunately, the battery life is still pretty awful. That’s something that it shares with the Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo.
To recap, though, that’s not important at all; sort of.
Someone buys the Fujifilm Instax LiPlay 2 because they want a digital and analog fusion product. More importantly, they want to shoot actual film, and there’s nothing close to this when it comes to shooting with actual film. In 2019, when it launched, the LiPlay was my favorite Instax camera. That has since been taken by the Instax Mini 99.
To that end, it has the same image quality as before. So we will paste those images from our original review into this article.
Would I get it for around $150? Well, if I needed a digital and analog hybrid camera, then I surely would. And I’d be very happy with the digital prints that the camera makes. To be frank with you, I can’t tell the differences between those and other Instax cameras. And in the end, that’s probably all that matters. But I’d sure love some better battery life.
We’re giving the Fujifilm Instax Liplay 2 four out of five stars.
