Charmera Review – Kodak has its charms, but this camera isn’t one of them

This week, I acquired the in-demand Kodak Charmera digital point-and-shoot camera. I teach an Art Photography class at a small U.S. university, and some students were intrigued by the thumb-sized camera — possibly as an alternative to a long-discontinued Minolta 16 spy camera. Whomever Amazon chooses as the next James Bond, he or she won’t be using this camera.

The Charmera falls in the same vein as a Labubu plush toy; a tiny, key-chain elf that’s popular but has limited use. The Charmera — 57mm wide, 23mm tall — ships with a simple key chain and a USB-C charging cable. You scan a QR code to get the very basic user guide. You must supply your own micro SD card, and the unremovable battery is charged with the USB-C cable, which also enables downloads from the camera to a laptop (or presumably, a phone).

Aside from a few modest filter/mode settings, including frames, yellow/blue/red, B/W, and a mode that reminds me of a photocopied print, the Charmera offers few user options. Because it’s so small, the tunnel-like viewfinder is of little use, and the LCD screen is smaller than many postage stamps. The camera has no autofocus or image stabilization, nor a tripod socket. Retail price for this refugee from a bubblegum dispenser: $32 USD.

Still images are rendered as 1440 x 1080 ppi jpeg files. They are far from eye-catching and capture almost no detail. You could consider them “painterly,” if you squint. The flash is all but ineffective, and easily blocked by your right index finger. With a base ISO of 153, it’s hard to imagine using the camera in anything other than daylight.

No one buys a Charmera for photo quality. I worked for Kodak when the 110-film based Fling camera hit retailers in 1987, and the Charmera is configured to echo that long-discontinued camera. Is it worth $32 USD or your equivalent currency? My 15-year-old Canon Powershot SD790IS camera from 2007 offers better clarity, resolution, and focus. So buy a Charmera for novelty or nostalgia, not for anything approaching a simple 35 film point-and-shoot camera. Now I’m hunting around for my Canon Prima Tele.

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