Kodak Charmera review – a keychain that takes pictures.

Introduction

I have a simple rule: when more than fifteen people ask me about a camera or lens I wasn’t planning to review, I write about it. The Kodak Charmera falls squarely into that camp.

Every few years a camera shows up to remind us that photography can simply be play, and unashamedly spits on the spec sheet arm-wrestling with no pressure to outdo the last release. In 2025, that camera is the Charmera: a keychain-sized digital trinket sold in blind boxes, seven retro outfits, and zero pretense.

Under the plastic shell lives a 1/4″ 1.6-megapixel sensor and a plastic 35 mm ƒ2.4 lens, numbers that would horrify dolts who scream that the Leica M EV1 is bad when they don’t even bother to understand the design intents of it and will absolutely delight anyone who believes character beats clinical.

The Kodak Charmera is co-developed with Reto, and priced like buying a Labubu. You don’t choose the color; the Charmera chooses you.

Let’s take a closer look.

and oh, for the 1st time, all the photo samples here are taken by my 9 year old kid, I simply passed the Charmera to her and told her to have fun with it for 2 weeks. The Charmera came back pretty scratched up but still works perfectly.

tl:dr

I would never expect that I would be writing about a 1.6 megapixels camera in 2025 but here we are, The Kodak Charmera is a stroke of marketing genius, creating an accessory that everyone wants but in fact no one needs.

Include a blind box induced dose of endorphins and we have a roaring success for Kodak with greedy scalpers selling this USD29.99 camera for at least 400% its SRP with orders backed up till 2026 Jan.

The Kodak Charmera is a reminder that well, taking photographs can truly be a spontaneous any-moment activity, and the fun of engaging in photography can be simple and without indulging in the megapixel, sensor-size contests of today.

At it’s asking price of USD29.99, there’s really no reason to not indulge in one, even if its chucked aside and forgotten after a week of fun.

Technicalities

• A 1/4″ CMOS sensor that outputs 1.6MP (1440×1080) JPEGs.
• A fixed 35 mm ƒ2.4 lens, lens is fully plastic.
• Takes 30 fps video in AVI format.
• 12 different looks (7 filters, 4 frames), making sure you have social-media ready perfect imperfect shots.
• Supports microSD card storage, up to 128 GB cards.
• Charges by USB-C with 200 mAh rechargeable battery.
• A keychain-resque 58 × 24.5 × 20 mm, approximately 30 g.
• Blind-box style with 7 designs at USD$29.99 each.

Performance

It is probably true that other than minimising production costs, the tiny 1/4″ sensor and plastic lens are delibrately designed to output soft detail with a muted dynamic range which mirrors my experience with the Charmera: have zero expectations and pray that a nice shot pops up along the way, probably exactly the aesthetic many from Generation Z and A yearn for.

The Kodak Charmera is a toy camera: a keychain which happens to take pictures and that is where you should base your expectations on.

The lens has fixed focus and with the fixed lens, essentially works with a point-press-and-pray approach. The brighter outdoors (and not too bright either) works best, expect a lot of motion blur in your shots too.

I do have to give credit to the 12 looks composed from the filters and frames. These are looks I feel the user will actually use, and in their weird ways, completes the shot.

Video wise, the 30 fps AVI is straight-out-of-2000s. There is zero stabilisation but well, the footage has a nostalgic vibe that cuts well into vertical reels. Keep them short and sweet.

The most impressive part of the Kodak Charmera is probably that startup is near-instant; though you will feel the lag between shots. I am oh-so-glad it has an USB-C port and not a micro-USB port.

Handling wise, it is good to remind that the Kodak Charmera is a keychain, all 30 grams of it. Hook it to your bag or bunch of Labubus on the bag or dump it into your pocket and just have fun with it.

The buttons layout are basically common sensical to work with though I absolutely hate that I need to select the mode between Photo/Video every single time I switch the Charmera on.

and oh, there is no ‘Back’ button because the top dial’s left On/Off/Menu button functions as one.

The optical finder is simply a hole through the body, a suggestion of what you probably will get, the LCD actually does a pretty decent job of showing a preview of your shots too.

Conclusions

The Charmera is not here to replace anything and I feel almost no one needs one, however we don’t need many other things either and despite all these, the Kodak Charmera can bring spontaneous joy in a USD29.99 box.

At home, my kids have unrestricted access to my cameras, whether it is a Hasselblad medium format, Leica M, Nikon full frame, Fujifilm APSC or a Ricoh GR and they actually enjoyed the Kodak Charmera.

In an era where we measure images by megapixels and equipment by MTF charts, this toy of a camera encourages you to play: to photograph that banana peel on the ground, that lonely bus stop, that spotted pigeon you spot or even that brick wall with a misaligned brick without any worry of being criticised .

The charm is really in how the pictures can surprise one pleasantly, the kid had quite a few laughs seeing how some of her shots turned out and for that, USD29.99 is really a low price to pay.

It’s intentionally imperfect, and that’s its charm. If you crave resolution or control, look elsewhere. If you want spontaneity and laughter, the Kodak Charmera nails it.

Sometimes perfectly imperfect is exactly perfect.

And oh, if you have the Yellow one and willing to let it go, let me know? You know, just because...

Thank you for reading.

Disclaimers:

1. All product photos were photographed by me and samples by my 9 year old kid. I believe any reviewer with pride should produce their own product photos. 

2. All images were shot with my personal sets of the Kodak Charmera.

3. This review is not sponsored.

4. I write as a passion and a hobby, and I appreciate that photography brands are kind enough to respect and work with me.

5. The best way to support me is to share the review, or you can always help support me by contributing to my fees to WordPress for the domain using the Paypal button at the bottom of the page.