Check your junk drawer! Your old digital cameras are cool (and valuable) again

The cameras that were ubiquitous before smartphones developed decent enough cameras for posting selfies are in vogue again. Particular brands of Gen Z’s desires are the Sony Cybershot DSC-W220, the Nikon Coolpix L15, the Canon Powershot SD1300, and the Samsung MV900F. If those models sound familiar, maybe it's a good gift for the Gen Z in your life... or you could even try selling it!

They’re popping up on TikTok; they’re popping up on Instagram: Low quality, semi-blurry photos with bad lighting. Some have fake timestamps, most are taken by people born around the turn of the millennium. That’s right, the hottest Gen Z digital tool is the turn-of-century digital camera that’s probably gathering dust in one of your drawers.

Photo: @loak.oentok.laok / Instagram

The trend really started picking up steam when influencers began posting photos shot with digital cameras that mimicked the aesthetic of early ’00s influencers like Paris Hilton. Model Emily Ratajkowski was one of the first to get on the trend in October 2021. She continues to his day, as you can see from this photograph, which is definitely of sub-par quality compared to an iPhone.

Photo: emrata / Instagram

The British Albanian singer-songwriter Dua Lipa was just a few months behind Ratajkowski, posting a series of blurry and grainy photos of herself in the studio to Instagram. The post, with some images hardly distinguishable, got 1.29 million likes.

Photo: dualipa / Instagram

Nicola Pelz Beckham, the wife of Brooklyn Beckham (begat by David and Victoria), also joined the trend in 2022, when it was really starting to go strong. This example even has the date set to 1994, even though she was only one year old that year.

Photo: nicolaannepeltzbeckham /  Instagram

What’s cooler these days than posting a photo shot with a digital camera to Instagram? A photo shot with a digital camera of you with a digital camera hanging from your wrist, as the influencer Charli D’Amelio (who has 48 million followers) shows here.

Photo: charlidamelio / Instagram

Believe it or not, the youngest adults have an obsession with the very confusing Y2K era. This is manifesting not only with digital cameras but fashion like low-rise jeans, velour tracksuits and dresses on top of jeans. In 2021, the brand of the time, Abercrombie & Fitch, reported its highest sales since 2014, according to the New York Times.

Just because the pictures are of worse quality doesn’t mean they are worse in the eyes of Gen Z. That’s fashion, and it may be spreading to the rest of the generations.

Photo: bellahadid / Instagram

Hand in hand with the aesthetic value is that a pic taken with a Sony Cybershot stands out from all the more perfectly edited, filtered pictures. It harkens back to paparazzi photos taken of stars like Paris Hilton. But of course, it's only a feigned “raw” version since posters purposely choose the pictures they upload just like anyone else.

Photo: @mysexyphotos / Instagram

Ok, the point-and-shoot camera fans still need to go through all the work of uploading the pictures from the cameras onto their computers and then uploading them on their social media accounts. It’s actually more work than usual. However, Zounia Rabotson, who posts with an old digital camera told the New York Times, “I feel like we’re becoming a bit too techy… To go back in time is just a great idea.”

Photo: zouniia / Instagram

Gen Z is increasingly searching to take a break from social media. According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 36% of teenagers said they were spending too much time on social media. At least the digital cameras can free them from their phones, even if to take a picture that will later be uploaded to their feeds. “I felt so off the grid,” Sadie Grey Sosser told the NYT about using digital cameras to snap memories.

Photo: gelin.jpg/Instagram

The Retro Camera Shop, an online vintage camera shop, shifted from marketing mainly film cameras to more digital cameras in early 2021. The store’s Instagram account suggests they began heavily recruiting influencers to sell the aesthetic... And, of course, their cameras.

Photo: retrocamerashop / Instagram

If you’re looking to sell an old camera, there hasn’t been a better time in years. Many of the desired cameras are out of production, making them a scarce commodity. According to the New York Times, searches for 'Nikon COOLPIX' increased by 90 percent on eBay from 2021 to 2023.

Photo: retrocamerashop / Instagram

A TikTok tutorial shows users how to get by without one of the prized mediocre cameras. How? By covering a phone’s camera with plastic wrap and then rubbing lip balm on top. Take a photo with the flash on and the light off… of course.

Image: Still from filmbykt / TikTok

Here’s a picture of the results of the fake 00’s look in the tutorial that has garnered more than 890,000 likes on TikTok.

Image: Still from filmbykt / TikTok

Millennials had a brief fling with 'vintage' polaroids and film cameras, and past generations no doubt had their flirtations with creating vintage looks with vintage technology. Given the ubiquity of social media platforms today, however, it probably wasn’t so... blatantly trendy. Seeing there's a pattern, maybe best to hold onto your old iPhone to sell to some teenagers in around a decade.