Kodak has released a retro camera that we imagine a lot of you will instantly want. And it’s small enough to fit on a keyring.
The Kodak Charmera is a micro digital camera, less than 6cm long. It measures just 58 x 24.5 x 20mm and weighs 30g, but there’s more to it than you might guess.
Kodak’s Charmera still crams a tiny LCD screen onto its rear. You can properly compose your pics, while a trio of back buttons lets you review photos.
You don’t, as we half expected, have to shoot totally blind with a Kodak Charmera.
There is a blind element here, though. Kodak makes seven designs of Charmera, and the outer packaging does not give away which one you’re getting.
All six of the standard designs are retro-drenched, inspired by Kodak’s first single-use camera from 1987 — which the Charmera is here to celebrate, even if it’s not remotely single-use itself.
There’s also a seventh “secret” edition, which is not really secret at all. But it does have a translucent casing and a 1/48 chance of appearing in a Charmera box, according to Kodak.
Even if you buy a “whole set” package ($179.94 direct from Kodak), you don’t actually get all seven designs. You get six, with a reasonable chance of unboxing one of the “secret” ones.
You know what? We’re not even sure if the secret edition of the Kodak Charmera would be top of our list. Not with some of those other VHS cover-style colour-drenched designs also out there.
The Kodak Charmera has a small 1/4-inch digital sensor that shoots photos of 1440 x 1080 pixels, equivalent to 1.6 megapixels. It can shoot 30fps video too.
Photos can also be customised with a “date stamp, 4 vintage Kodak frames and 7 special filters.”
You’re not going to capture masterpieces with this camera, but it’s a fun gadget that does not cost the earth. A single Charmera costs £30, although it appears to be entirely sold out at the moment.
You can pick one up in the UK on Amazon, through distributor RT-PRO UK.
In the box, you get a keyring and USB-C cable, but you will need to supply your own microSD memory card. Sizes up to 128GB are officially supported.
To get an idea of what stills and videos taken by the Charmera actually look like, check out recent posts from the Kodak Instagram account.
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