The Kodak Charmera (previously at Boing Boing) is a 30-gram keychain digicam built around a 1/4-inch 1.6MP CMOS sensor and a fixed 35mm-equivalent f/2.4 plastic lens. It shoots 1440 × 1080 stills and 30fps AVI video to microSD, runs on a 200mAh USB-C battery, and adds a viewfinder for retro appeal. Even after a price hike, it's just $35.
And it's a phenomenon, having swarmed Tik Tok and showing up everywhere else, too. Charmera is the Labubu of cameras, with seven blind-box designs, and now it's an award-winner, too.
In March it took an iF Design Award 2026 in the Product Design category. Last week it added a Red Dot Design Award 2026, which Kodak announced on Instagram. "Our little Kodak Charmera just took home one of the world's biggest design prizes!" the company posted.
Not everyone is charmed, though. The Phoblographer's Chris Gampat wrote "Why You Shouldn't Buy the Kodak Charmera" and even that is mostly a love letter. This sins: too few megapixels, no RAW, no zoom, no interchangeable lens, no AI autofocus.
We're at the third stage of a nostalgia run that began with rich-kid influencers posting (or just posing) with Fujifilm's excellent and very retro X100VI (and more recently the X Half), then moved to less-expensive obsolete point-and-shoots (that were soon expensive again), and has reached casual affordability in the Charmera, which costs less than a gourmet pizza and IPA.
Like the Fujis, though, there have been availability problems. Resale prices soared, and a look at eBay shows the transparent one still commanding $200 or more. Kodak's manufacturing partner, Reto, has caught up with demand, as it seems in-stock everywhere now, so you don't need to bother with the cheap-looking alternatives that don't get the look right. Adjacently, the Haru Mini Retro has some buzz (but now you're paying $90 to an eBayer in Japan) and the Camp Snap is larger, if similar in spirit.
I always wanted on of those weirdly long and thin 110 pocket cameras from the 1980s. And Lomo still makes them (and the film), should my local Goodwill already be picked clean.
