Kodak’s quirky Charmera camera is getting a nostalgic refresh with the new Charmera Millennium Edition.
It swaps the original’s retro disposable-camera styling for a collection of shiny Y2K-inspired designs. These designs look like they came straight from the early 2000s.
The update introduces seven new finishes, all inspired by the technology and aesthetics of the millennium era.
At $34.99/£35, the new models retain the same affordable price point. This helped make the original Charmera a hit among collectors and fans of lo-fi photography.
The Millennium Edition isn’t just a cosmetic update, though. Kodak has expanded the camera’s creative toolkit with a total of seven photo filters and four retro-style frames. These can be applied while shooting. Alongside the existing black-and-white mode and high-contrast pixel filters, users now get four additional colour options: Coral, Honey, Teal, and Violet.
Under the hood, however, very little has changed.
The Charmera Millennium Edition uses the same hardware as the original model, including a 1.6-megapixel sensor capable of capturing images at 1,440 x 1,080 resolution. Video recording is similarly basic, topping out at 30fps AVI footage. While that’s enough to store thousands of photos on a microSD card of up to 128GB, image quality remains firmly in toy-camera territory.
That’s unlikely to be a dealbreaker for the audience Kodak is targeting. The Charmera’s appeal has never been about technical performance. Instead, it’s about embracing imperfect digital photography. Instant cameras and disposable film cameras have found a new audience in recent years.
Still, with smartphone cameras continuing to improve and retro photography trends showing no signs of slowing down, future versions may need more than fresh colourways. Additionally, they may need additional filters to stand out.
For now, though, the Charmera Millennium Edition doubles down on exactly what made the original popular: affordable, pocket-friendly fun with a healthy dose of nostalgia.
