In a narrow hallway that separates the dance floor and the restrooms of a local club, I saw some girls taking photos. Instead of an iPhone, one of them held a retro digital camera at an angle above the group’s heads. The flash went off and I pushed past them as they looked at the screen and giggled. It’s a small moment, but also part of a much larger consumer trend. Thanks to TikTok, handheld digital cameras from the 90s and 2000s are now making a huge comeback, and I can say it’s one of the trends that’s really worth the hype.
Point-and-shoot cameras, affectionately known on the internet as “digi-cams,” have become the new favorite technology of Instagram girlies around the world. This is due in large part to TikTok, where content about digital cameras has become a huge trend. There, a simple photo slideshow Showing off someone’s favorite cameras can get more than 2.4 million views. People give tips for Getting started with digital cameras. Others talk about it best settings to take the perfect glamor photo. Many people Rate the cameras in your collections. Even the cameras themselves are fun, there guys Decorate your cameras with glittery stickers and pearl bracelet.
Nostalgia definitely plays a role in the hype. While some people buy cheap (but new) cameras from the TikTok store or opt for more impressive new models, many of the videos emphasize that they are digital cameras Add some “vintage” to the photos 1990s and 2000s mom and dad vibe (if your parents grew up back then). Digital cameras have this nice in-between status where the images seem a little more retro and novel, but they don’t require the hassle or expertise of using film. But this isn’t just some lo-fi trend – many of the photos actually just look better than cell phone photos thanks to a Real lightning And the mechanical advantages of using a camera with a larger lens. Of course, when surfing the Internet, you can never be sure how a photo might be manipulated or edited, but Direct comparisons with recordings from iPhone cameras Witness the additional layers of color and warmth that taking a selfie with a digital camera can add. After thinking about it, I decided to take the $40 plunge and buy a retro camera of my own.
After watching a clip on TikTok, I finally settled on a 2004 Canon PowerShot G6 because it seemed to capture golden light. Using a digital camera on the go definitely feels different than taking photos with an iPhone. With a phone, it’s easy to mindlessly press the button and take dozens of photos in a matter of minutes. I took maybe two dozen photos with the Canon during an entire night, and I liked the photos I took better than my average cell phone photos. At times I was disappointed by the number of blurry photos, but that didn’t detract from the excitement of the experience. The photos that turned out looked phenomenal – so much so that I already got one printed out as a gift for a group of friends I photographed one evening.
My iPhone camera tends to produce an intense white color in direct sunlight, and features like portrait mode often mistakenly straighten my curly hair, awkwardly blurring it as if it were part of the background. When I first looked at my Canon’s photos, I was shocked at how the retro camera highlighted the undertones of my skin and captured a warmer look. As a mixed-race person who often feels whitewashed in other (non-photographic) ways, using an older digital camera felt affirming because it allowed me to literally see myself in a new light – one in which I looked browner, more like me yourself. Details like these may seem insignificant, but they are important to me.
Online, a lot of the hype seems to be based on how hot people can look when they use a point-and-shoot camera to take photos, but for me at least, it’s more than that. Looking at these photos makes me feel more like myself in them .Now I can see depth in different parts of my face – like curls in a certain part of my curl pattern or a wrinkle in my smile that I didn’t see before. Sure, I don’t like carrying around another piece of technology, but the photos make it worth it. And personally, I don’t know if I’ll ever share an iPhone photo on my Instagram again.
