08/31/2026
Kodak is bringing the thrill of ripping packs to filmmakers. 📸
You’ve probably seen the Kodak Charmera everywhere recently. These tiny cameras combine three product trends that are having a moment right now: disposable-camera aesthetics, imperfect early-digital/DV-style imagery, and the dopamine hit of collectible blind boxes.
But the reason we were excited to carry them at Filmtools goes a little deeper than the trend: Kodak actually pulled from its own history for the design.
The Charmera takes a lot of inspiration from the Kodak Fling, a tiny 110 film camera Kodak introduced in the late ’80s following the arrival of Fujifilm’s QuickSnap.
Because the Fling used 110 film instead of 35mm, Kodak could make the camera ridiculously compact, small enough to disappear into the pocket of 80’s kid’s acid-washed mom jeans.
Fast-forward nearly 40 years and the idea is back, only now it’s digital.
For about $35, the Charmera gives you a 1.6MP sensor, fixed 35mm-equivalent f/2.4 lens, built-in retro filters, MicroSD recording and USB-C charging, all packed into a genuinely tiny reusable camera with a clip.
Everything is basically automatic. There are no serious exposure controls, no RAW files and definitely no LOG profile hiding in the menu.
And the pictures?
They look… bad.
But we mean that affectionately.
In a world where computational photography can turn almost any smartphone photo into a technically perfect image, and AI can generate something that never existed at all, there’s something strangely refreshing about a camera that gives you a tiny, crunchy, unpredictable JPEG and tells you to live with it.
There’s also the blind-box element. Different designs are hidden inside each package, including a much rarer translucent version.
At this point, just about everyone around the Filmtools office has bought one and tried their luck.
Nobody has pulled the translucent one yet.
So statistically speaking*… your odds have never been better.
Come by Filmtools, rip a pack and see what you get. 🎞️📸
*We are a camera store, not statisticians.
