A surprising tech revival holds an important lesson for news media publishers

The camera isn’t dead. It’s on a waiting list near you.”

Guy T. Tasaka, founder and managing partner, Tasaka Digital

When did you last take a picture with your camera? Not your phone. An actual camera. A device whose only job is to make photographs.

I asked a room full of media executives this question last spring and watched them pause. Most had to think back years. Some couldn’t remember at all. That pause tells you everything.

For a decade, the story was clean and obvious: smartphones killed the point-and-shoot camera. From a peak of roughly 120 million units shipped globally in 2010, compact camera sales collapsed more than 90% from that peak — reaching roughly 1.7 million units by 2023. Industry analysts wrote the obituary. Manufacturers closed product lines. Camera stores disappeared.

Then something unexpected happened.

In 2025, global compact camera shipments hit 2.4 million units — a 30% increase year-over-year, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association. Shipment revenue for compacts surged 49% in November 2025 compared to the prior year. And 2024 had already marked a rebound after years of decline.

The camera isn’t dead. It’s on a waiting list near you.

If you want a Fujifilm X100VI, you might be waiting for months. In Japan, the camera went to lottery sales with anti-scalper conditions requiring purchase history at participating stores. Ricoh’s GR IV launched in August 2025 with dealers projecting at least 12 months of out-of-stock conditions. According to dealer contacts, preorders approached X100VI levels despite the GR IV’s significantly higher price.

On the used market, the numbers are even wilder. The Canon PowerShot G7X Mark III, which launched at around $700, now trades on eBay for $1,200 to $1,500. A Contax T2 that might have cost you $450 10 years ago has changed hands for $4,500. eBay reported a 52% jump in “refurbished camera” searches in late 2022. Depop searches for cameras shot up 51% in early 2024.

Fujifilm CEO Teiichi Goto told investors in 2024, in comments translated and widely cited by enthusiastic press, that producing too many units would lower prices, and that Fujifilm wanted to build brand power and maintain Leica-like pricing. Fujifilm told PetaPixel it was producing as many X100VI units as possible and denied that shortages were deliberately engineered.

Scarcity, for Fujifilm, isn’t a supply chain problem. It’s the product.

Vinyl, all over again

The parallel is obvious once you see it. Vinyl records were supposed to be a relic, then a curiosity, then a nostalgia buy, and now they’re a $1 billion U.S. market. Nobody expected that, either.

But here’s where the compact camera story gets more interesting than the vinyl analogy: the buyers aren’t nostalgic. They weren’t there the first time.

In 2025, 35% of the 42 million active film camera users worldwide were between 18 and 30 years old, according to Fortune. Nearly 48% of film camera purchases are now made by people aged 18 to 34, a demographic that grew up entirely in the digital era. Rotem Rozental, a historian of photography and lecturer at USC, told Fortune in 2026: “I’m seeing it as young people rejecting algorithms, breaking free from the alienation of social media and reacting to childhoods spent on Zoom and TikTok — a deliberate move to redefine the future of art, social connection and engagement with the world.”

Wholesale film order volumes have increased 127% since 2020. In 2025 alone, 312 new film labs opened globally. This isn’t nostalgia. This is something else.

Here’s the thing: the smartphone didn’t kill photography. It democratized it completely — and then turned it into a behavior loop.

Phones put cameras in three billion pockets. They taught an entire generation what it felt like to capture a moment. But the same device that took the photo also delivered the notifications, the comparisons, the engagement metrics and the algorithmic anxiety. The camera became inseparable from the behavior machine surrounding it.

Sixty-six percent of film shooters, in a survey cited by Eric Kim Photography, say their top reason for shooting film is that it helps them slow down and be mindful. With only 36 frames per roll and a real cost per shutter click, film forces a choice that a smartphone never does. You look. You wait. You decide.

And then there’s the AI layer. As AI-generated imagery floods the internet, flawlessly composed, mathematically optimized, technically perfect, there’s a growing appetite for photographs that are demonstrably made by a human. Film grain, light leaks, slightly off exposures: these aren’t defects anymore. They’re proof of something real.

What’s the takeaway for news media publishers?

This isn’t a photography column. The camera revival is a case study in what happens when a product category goes from tool to behavior machine — and what people do when they want out.

We’re in that same story with digital media. Infinite scroll, push notifications, personalized feeds optimized for engagement: all of it designed to capture and hold attention. And now audiences are starting to pay premium prices for experiences that don’t do that.

Consider what unified the most-wanted compact cameras before they sold out: the Fujifilm X100VI, the Ricoh GR IV, the revived premium compacts. Fixed lenses. Physical controls. Deliberate operation. Distinctive color science. Constraint as a feature, not a bug. The limitation is the product. People are paying a premium to have fewer options, more friction and a cleaner purpose.

Local media publishers have spent years chasing the frictionless, always-on, algorithmically tuned experience. The camera market suggests at least a meaningful audience is moving the other direction — toward intentional, bounded, high-quality experiences they choose on their own terms.

That’s a reader worth thinking about. And a product worth designing for.

The question isn’t whether to build a newsletter or a FAST channel or an AI-powered feed. The question is whether any of your products feel like a camera or a phone.

One of those is having a strong year.

Guy T. Tasaka is a seasoned media professional with a 35-year track record of leading change in the industry. He has collaborated with renowned organizations, such as Macworld Magazine, Ziff-Davis and The New York Times, where he honed his expertise in research, strategy, marketing and product management. As the former chief digital officer at Calkins Media, Guy was acknowledged as the Local Media Association's Innovator of the Year for his work in advancing OTT and digital video platforms for local news organizations. He is also the founder and managing partner of Tasaka Digital, specializing in helping media and technology companies navigate business transformations using his extensive experience and forward-thinking approach. He can be reached at guy@tasakadigital.com.