Remember the point-and-shoot digital cameras? Gen Z wants them

Anna Ly, 19, is a victim of her own success - or at least the popularity of the trend she is catering to.

The 19-year-old university student started using a 2000s-era, point-and-shoot digital camera five years ago. Soon, others began asking her where they could get a similar camera, so two years ago she opened the Instagram store Retrovision.nz to sell digital cameras.

“The flash of a digital camera is 100 percent brighter. It gives more of a Nostalgic vibe where you can just tell that it was taken with something really old and not something modernised.

“And I think it's just a great vibe.”

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However, with other young people around the world raiding op shops, Facebook Marketplace and online stores often in Asia, Ly can’t find enough stock to keep the store alive. Retrovision.nz is on hiatus until the end of the year, when she hopes a new Japanese supplier will provide a steady flow of old digital cameras.

Point-and-shoot digital cameras is the latest relic from the Y2K era that has grabbed the attention of young generations. Gen Z - those aged between 13 and 28 - are wearing midriff-baring tops with cargo pants, listening to emo and indie rock, and are watching TV shows such as Friends and Sex and the City. Now, they are moving on to tech such as brick phones and digital cameras, partially as a way to disconnect themselves from the devices that likely consumed their earlier years.

Early digital cameras typically could shoot photos and sometimes video, with a limited capability to zoom in. The images were stored on a memory card in the camera, which was then printed out as a photo or stored on a computer. When cameras became commonplace on phones around 2010, sales of digital cameras nosedived.

Adam Purcell, 29, is the owner of Junktion NZ, a vintage camera shop on Auckland’s Karangahape Road. He started selling old film cameras at an Auckland market and opened a storefront in 2019. He noticed an increased interest in digital cameras about two years ago. Film cameras are still about 80 percent of the store’s stock, but the demand for digital cameras is growing.

“iPhone photos are so crisp and I guess it gets a bit boring.”

“You take 1,000 photos when you're on a trip, right? Probably never look at them, but if you’ve got a little digital camera that has like two gigabytes of memory, you have to kind of think about it, especially with film, because you've only got about 36 shots, you really have to think about your shots.”

Photos taken with an early digital camera are grainier due to the low quality, says Purcell.

“The flashes have a kind of unique look when you have a digital flash. It’s kind of overexposed but in a cool way.”

Often, the images and videos taken by Purcell’s young customers on digital cameras will be headed to Instagram or TikTok, he says.

Glydel Medalla, 21, loves the colours produced by the point-and-shoot digital cameras of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“You know how there's like a slightly grey and blurry photo that it gets? It just feels more real than just using the phone photos or like a phone camera.

“...I just love it. Anything giving a 2000s party vibe is just trending.”

Medalla, a university student in Christchurch, now sells digital cameras through Thrifted.pix, her Instagram store. With increasing demand, she has noticed the prices of point-and-shoot cameras creeping up. What would have been $50 two years ago is now more like $150, “which is really wild,” she said.

While some of her friends think the digital camera trend will die away, Medalla hopes it will continue to give her and others in her generation a break from their phones. Ly agrees that a digital camera helps her and her friends be less distracted by the apps on their phones.

“With a digital camera, the only thing you can do is take a photo and view the picture.

“... So yes, it helped a lot with us communicating and not sticking our faces into our phones.”