The ridiculously tiny Kodak Charmera captured our hearts (and lots of shoddy pictures)

Source: Engadget

Overview

Every once in a while, a product comes along that sparks a bit of joy in our jaded hearts. The Kodak Charmera—a $30 tiny toy camera—sold out immediately after its release, only becoming more readily available after several blind‑box restocks. Despite its gimmick, the Charmera’s cuteness won over many of us, and a few members of the Engadget team now own one. Even with its shortcomings, we kind of love this thing. Here’s what two of our writers think about it.

Perspectives

Jackson Chen, Contributing Reporter

Lately, it feels like a chore to carry around a full‑frame mirrorless camera. My Nikon definitely feels like the right tool to precisely capture a moment in time with fast autofocus and plenty of image resolution. Other times, that perfect moment is more casual—catching up with friends over dim sum or killing time while you’re snowed in at a cabin in Vermont. In those cases, there’s no reason to lug around a hulking camera and lens to snap a flawless photo that I have to edit later. Instead, something light, discreet, and playful feels like the right tool for the occasion.

That’s where the Kodak Charmera comes in. It’s a toy camera with a 35 mm lens, a fixed f/2.4 aperture, and a 1/4‑inch sensor. In other words, the photos it takes are about equivalent to what you’d get with a crappy flip phone from the 2000s that also plays Snake. Kodak is clearly trying to wring out the longing for nostalgia within all of us, and it has nailed it with the Charmera, which is even inspired by its old‑school disposable Fling cameras. It’s definitely not as good as the smartphone in your pocket, but there’s something disarming about snapping a quick shot with a tiny block of plastic that’s lighter than your keys.

Playing around with the Charmera for a few weeks gave me a healthy reminder that the sillier, more transient parts of life don’t need the technical prowess of an expensive camera. Obviously, the Charmera produces photos of terrible quality at 1.6 megapixels and can’t really capture anything fast‑moving or in low light, but it’s undeniably fun and hard to resist shooting with. Sometimes you and your friends are just doing wildly unserious things, and you want a camera that matches that energy.

Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor

Every time I pull out the Kodak Charmera in public to snap a few pictures, I’m immediately met with a barrage of questions and squeals of delight from full‑grown adults: “What is that?”; “Is that a camera?”; “Does it really take pictures?”; “Can I see it?” It doubles as a conversation starter, an effect that’s turned out to be as joyous as taking pictures with the camera itself. I’ve been trying hard to spend less time on social media and my phone in general lately, and having a two‑inch camera clipped to me has made for a pretty fun shift in how I document day‑to‑day life.

As the resurgence of compact digital cameras has shown, many people are yearning for a time of simpler tech—when personal devices could do useful things, like take decent photos and connect us to friends, without consuming our lives entirely. Companies like Camp Snap have built entire brands around recapturing that magic, and some consumers are willing to sacrifice image quality for a taste of it. The Kodak Charmera isn’t a product you purchase with high expectations; it’s clearly a toy that is only capable of so much.

As Jackson noted, the low‑resolution 1,440 × 1,080 pictures look about on par with those you’d have taken on a flip phone 15 or 20 years ago. In the right lighting conditions with a clearly defined subject, they’re not so bad, but selfies, portraits, and nature photos will generally look washed out. It can record videos too—and you should set similarly low expectations for those.

Despite all that, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I’m enjoying the Charmera experience. Its crunchy photos are just good enough to feel like they’re successfully preserving a moment in time. And being so tiny, it’s really convenient to bring everywhere; it even came with me to CES. The Charmera takes a microSD card (sold separately), allowing for tons of storage and easy transferring. There are a bunch of built‑in filters you can apply, which have been fun to play around with.

If I want high‑quality photos, this isn’t the camera I’ll reach for. But it’s great for low‑stakes situations when all I care about is taking some pictures I can look back on fondly later. Consider me charmed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/the-ridiculously-tiny-kodak-charmera-captured-our-hearts-and-lots-of-shoddy-pictures-140000245.html?src=rss.