Kodak Charmera Review: Reto Makes a Retro Redo

Dec 20, 2025

Chris Niccolls

It’s the holiday season, and Reto has come up with the perfect Christmas present for photographers. The new Kodak Charmera is a tiny keychain-sized camera that uses licensed Kodak designs and logos to incredibly popular effect. The Charmera is true to its name and is a marketing masterpiece that is almost impossible to get now. I wanted to find out if this toy camera is worth all the hype, and whether it is worth purchasing after the holiday season.

Buy the Kodak Charmera new on B&H Buy the Kodak Charmera used on KEH.com

The secret to the Charmera’s success is four parts. It’s tiny. It’s only $30. Its Kodak livery is adorable. Lastly, the Charmera is a blind-box purchase, which means you never know what you’re going to get. There are six standard color schemes, and a possible transparent version which only occurs 1 in 48 times. There is no denying that the fun factor of not knowing what you’re gonna get, and the low cost, are making this the Labubu of the photographic world.

A person holds a colorful Kodak Charmera keychain digital camera box inspired by 1987 Kodak film, featuring retro graphics and bold colors, with part of a keyboard visible on the table beside them. — Everything from the box to the design work is eye-catching and appealing.

Kodak Charmera Review: How It Feels

From a handling standpoint, these cameras essentially weigh nothing, and yet the butter-stick shape of the camera is quite easy to hold. Controls are very limited, with a very simple shutter button on top and a power button beside it. There are a pair of arrows to cycle between the color modes and filters, as well as a playback button, which also confirms menu selections. It goes without saying that there is no manual control to speak of.

A small red Kodak keychain digital camera rests on a shiny blue surface, with a metallic key ring attached to its side. The camera features buttons and branding on its visible side. — The controls are very basic, with only a few buttons to manage.

A close-up of a small red Kodak device with a keychain attached, featuring a microSD card slot, a USB-C port, and certification markings, placed on a glossy blue surface. — There is a USB-C port for charging and transferring images. You will need an additional microSD card.

A small red Kodak camera keychain labeled "Kodak Charmera" sits on a shiny blue surface with a blurred dark background. — The keychain design looks like a miniature Kodak 110 format camera.

When you turn the camera on, you are greeted with a menu to decide if you want to shoot photos, videos, or to set the date and time. This is a slow process, however, and is further delayed by the roughly 3-second time required to power the camera on. At least the camera shoots fairly quickly when the shutter button is depressed.

A group of people dressed in winter clothing sing outdoors in the snow, shown on a yellow retro TV screen graphic with “1987” and colorful stripes at the bottom. — There are a series of built-in frames that you can select to enhance your images.

People walk on a snowy street in front of vintage-style buildings, with pixelated icons of hearts, cameras, coins, and stars digitally overlaid on the image.

Row of vintage red and yellow Shell gasoline cans displayed on a wooden shelf in front of a large, matching Shell gasoline storage tank.

Two black horses pull a wooden wagon filled with people bundled in winter clothing. The scene takes place on a snowy street beside white buildings, with tall evergreen trees in the background.

You have both an optical viewfinder, which is essentially a tiny tunnel of plastic to look through, and a brutally small LCD on the back of the camera to compose with. These devices are comically small and almost useless, and I struggled to compose accurately, resorting instead to approximating the blobs and shapes presented to me. But it is all in good fun, and in the end, a camera like this is about being surprised by what you captured to some extent.

A close-up of a red digital camera screen displaying a photo preview of a puppet with brown hair and a wide open mouth. Camera settings and icons are visible around the preview image. — The screen is tiny and almost impossible to determine the proper color or composition.

Kodak Charmera Review: How It Shoots

Image quality is objectively terrible, with 1.6 megapixels as your overall resolution and incredibly soft images out of any lower-light situations. You can cycle through a standard color profile, as well as a sepia-toned warm option, and a cold blue tone as well. There is also a fairly decent black and white mode. These four profiles give you very limited dynamic range, so expect the highlights to blow easily, and any shadows to largely go black.

A black and white photo of a utility pole with wires, positioned in front of a house with a snowy roof. Leafless tree branches and a mostly cloudy sky appear in the background. — The black and white mode is fine. In subdued light, the tonality is acceptable.

A detailed model train layout features buildings, roads, cars, a water tower, and rocky hills. A decorated tree sits atop a brick building, with tracks and a train car visible to the left. — Don’t expect a ton of sharpness or detail out of the basic plastic lens.

A man wearing a black jacket and cap stands in front of a wall with large mounted antlers, making it appear as if the antlers are growing from his head. There is also a framed picture on the wall to the right. — Low light conditions will make the image look soft and blurry.

A black and white photo showing a mounted deer head with large antlers on a wall above a wooden mantel, with a light fixture and part of a decorative ceiling visible.

There are also four high-contrast color modes, which give basically a two-tone color and shadow look that gets old pretty quickly. You can shoot grey, red, blue, or yellow for these high-contrast images. Kodak also has some cutesy frames that even change the aspect ratio of your images. There is a calendar look, a Kodak hearts and cameras border, an ultra-wide ratio within a comical camera body, and a 35mm film negative frame as well. This is all pretty standard toy camera stuff to play with.

A stylized, high-contrast image shows a vintage Canadian Pacific train numbered 6209 next to a fence, with trees and buildings in the background, all set against a bright yellow sky. — The high-contrast color modes are a limited two-tone affair.

Red and black stylized image showing the words "CANADIAN PACIFIC" and the number "6209" on the side of a train car with vertical panel lines.

Close-up of a vintage stovetop and oven control panel with round knobs and a large clock face labeled "Automatic." The stovetop burners are visible in the foreground. The image is in high-contrast blue and black.

A child with blond hair looks out of a window from inside a wooden train car, with a metal ladder attached to the exterior wall.

The video mode on the camera shoots a 4:3 ratio 1440×1080 resolution video, but the quality is way less than HD should be. Expect lots of rolling shutter, compression artifacts, and softness to be present. The audio pickups are brutal to use as well, and I honestly would never touch the video modes ever again, myself. I get that the overall quality of the images is besides the point with this camera, but I’ve seen some cheap cameras that have a ‘vibe’ to them, and I don’t think the Charmera quite hits that mark.

A model train set features a curved track with several boxcars, a locomotive, trees, and a large building with red-and-white smokestacks in the background, surrounded by scattered greenery. — The video capture appears to be quite brutal, with numerous compression issues and a lack of detail.

A person with gray hair holds a small Kodak film box close to the camera, while standing outdoors near trees decorated with colorful ornaments. The background is slightly blurred. — The Charmera is certainly convenient to take with you anywhere.

A white building with red-trimmed windows features large red letters spelling "CLUB CAFE" on the front. A slightly tilted sign below also reads "CLUB CAFE" with a smaller word "ROOMS" underneath.

Kodak Charmera Review: Toy or E-Waste?

I realize that I am being a Christmas Grinch. The Kodak Charmera is indeed charming, and Reto has done a great job of tapping into the fun and retro design that is making this camera so popular. Frankly, they’ve done a great job of keeping the cost down, too. However, there is no getting past the fact that this product is far more about style over substance, and I am convinced that many users will very quickly tire of the poor image quality and limited capabilities. Then, the camera will sit idle, the internal battery will fail, and the Charmera will become just another piece of electronic waste in a world already full of it. This is a wonderful Christmas gift that I think will bring short-lived smiles and fleeting fun.

A small, red Kodak keychain camera sits on a blue surface with blurred Christmas stockings hanging in the background. — This will prove to be a popular gift for the holiday season.

Are There Alternatives?

When it comes to toy cameras, there are too many options to count. Not many will offer the good looks and compact design of the Charmera, though, but they may offer better capabilities and perhaps more longevity. I would research some alternatives before jumping the gun, or consider a good used point-and-shoot camera that needs a good home.

Should You Buy It?

Yes. When I evaluate my recommendations, I do it based on the merit and original intention of the camera. In this regard, the Charmera is an affordable, stylish, marketing masterpiece, and would make for a charming gift, even if the overall experience is a shallow one.

Buy the Kodak Charmera new on B&H Buy the Kodak Charmera used on KEH.com

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