These 35mm Film Rolls Are Actually Tiny Digital Keychain Cameras

Matt Growcoot

Three boxes of NeoFilm 100 digital mini cameras are displayed, each resembling a roll of film. The boxes have different colored bands: yellow, rainbow, and orange. The packaging highlights “DIGITAL mini CAMERA” and “OPT.”.

After the success of the Kodak Charmera, it’s no surprise to see yet more keychain cameras: step forward the OPT100 Neo Film, a miniature camera made to look like a roll of 35mm film.

Like the Kodak Charmera, the OPT100 Neo Film is currently very difficult to get hold of. The miniature camera is made by Opt!, a Japanese brand, and it seems to only be available from retailers in the country. But they do ship internationally and are available on websites like eBay.

Miles Myerscough-Harris, aka Expired Film Club, just got his hands on one of the novelty cameras. “It’s literally the exact same size and shape as a roll of film,” he says.


As Myerscough-Harris shows, the Neo Film comes in a cardboard box, just like a real roll of film. But the stalk at the top of the canister is actually the shutter release button and other buttons allow the user to switch to video mode and cycle through the files.

Under the hood is a one-megapixel sensor, smaller than the Kodak Charmera’s 1.6 megapixels. Each photo is 3760 x 2128 pixels. It captures video at roughly 0.3 megapixels. There is a microSD card slot, which supports cards up to 32 GB. It comes with a USB-C charging port, which can be used to transfer photos and videos directly. The 230 mAh battery takes two hours to charge and will give the miniature photographer roughly one hour of continuous use.

A hand holds a compact digital mini camera shaped like a film roll. Three colorful film roll designs are displayed below. Japanese and English text describes the NeoFilm 100 camera and its nostalgic appeal.

A group of rolls of film on a table.

Three rolls of NeoFilm 100 camera film and their plastic canisters are scattered on a wooden table, with several colorful film boxes labeled “OPT 100” and “NeoFilm 100” in the background.

Three cylindrical NeoFilm 100 film canisters are shown in different color schemes: black and yellow, white and orange, and multicolor. Japanese text provides color names under each canister.

Notebook Check reports that for optimal results, the subject should be seven to 27 inches away (20cm to 70cm). The shutter speed is an estimated 1/125 of a second and the ISO is somewhere around 1600.

Clearly, it’s not a camera anyone is going to shoot seriously on. Rather, it’s a fun novelty item that harks back to the bygone age of analog photography. The smartphone in people’s pockets will outperform the OPT100 Neo Film — but that’s not the point.

It is priced very reasonably: sub-$40 (5,940 yen). It comes in black and yellow, white and orange, or multi-color.

Earlier this week, PetaPixel featured another tiny camera: the Haru Mini Retro Camera.

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