The Kodak Charmera Blind Boxes Sold Out in Just 24 Hours
The minuscule Kodak Charmera keychain camera sold out in just one day, as Reto reveals it sold 10 times more of the blind boxes than it expected to.
As PetaPixel reported last week, the Kodak Charmera pays homage to the very first Kodak single-use camera released in 1987.
But while those film cameras used 110 cartridges, the $30 Kodak Charmera miniature cameras use microSD cards to store photos and videos. The tiny cameras are released by Reto under a licensing agreement with Kodak.
Reto Project Sales and Marketing Director Vivienne Tsang tells USA Today that all of the blind boxes were sold out in one day. Tsang did not reveal the exact number sold; but revealed it was 10 times more than expected.
On the Instagram page, fans are desperate for them to restock and expressed their frustration at not being able to buy one.
On the Reto website, a banner says “due to high demand” shipping duration may be prolonged and the company is limiting pre-order quantities to a single camera or one set box.
Reto advises fans to stay up to date with its Instagram page for updates. Digital Camera World notes that B&H can alert users when the Charmera is back in stock.
The tiny plastic camera measures just 58 by 24.5 by 20 millimeters and weighs a meager 30 grams. They are available in seven design schemes: a classic yellow, a red, a gray, a geometric shape emblazoned white, a black and rainbow, a blue, and then a “mystery” secret version that users have a one in 48 chance of getting, spoiler: it is a transparent plastic version.
All of the cameras share the same internals which are, just like the outside, miniature. The sensor is a very small 1.6-megapixel, Type 1/4 CMOS with an equally tiny 35mm f/2.4 lens in front of it (with plastic optics, of course). The little cameras can capture very low resolution photos that measure a scant 1,440 by 1,080 pixels. Video quality is about the same and clips are shot at 30 frames per second in AVI format. There is extremely limited internal storage (two photos appear to be able to be saved), so a microSD (maximum of 1GB capacity) is a must and is not included. The camera does support direct plug into a computer, however, and that same USB-C port is used for charging the internal battery.
Image credits: Sample images courtesy of Reto. Product photos by Jaron Schneider for PetaPixel.
