Polaroid cameras in pastel colors, analog devices with rolls of excitement; many old cameras have already returned in the last ten years. The compact digital camera has recently returned. The cameras are very popular with young people, who take them to festivals, on the balcony and on vacation. Stores have noticed that demand is much greater than supply.

“Everyone is asking for one of these now that summer is here,” says a Kamera Express employee. “The manufacturers can’t handle it anymore.” Several compact digital cameras are temporarily unavailable on the site.

On Marktplaats, the number of searches for compact cameras increased by 55 percent this spring compared to spring 2023. More than 60,000 searches for “compact camera” were made in the first four months of this year alone.

Many of these cameras are also temporarily unavailable at Mediamarkt. “This trend was not expected,” explains a company spokesperson. “The industry has largely transformed its factories, and you simply can’t reverse that. We believe that smaller brands will do this, but larger brands may be less likely to do so.”

But why are cameras so popular again now, about fifteen years after their heyday? Young people talk about the “nostalgic look” and actually love the low quality of some devices. In popular TikToks, they point out to each other the best places to pick one up and the best device functions. The flash function is especially popular among enthusiastic users, even during the day.

“It can also be a sense of nostalgia,” says Rob Ter Ellen, a camera expert at auction site Catawiki. “Cameras offer more realistic images. Manufacturers can do a lot with smartphone software, but they can’t replicate the flaws of those old cameras.”

For years, the cameras fetched between 10 and 15 euros on the auction site, but over the past year they have sometimes been auctioned for 150 or 200 euros. Ter Ellen: “We saw about six years ago that young people started working with analogue cameras again, which then became disposable cameras. These people now think that this is also possible with a compact camera.”

Bok, 25, and Risa, 26, explain why they love the compact digital camera so much:

“The small flat models are especially popular,” says Ter Ellen. “I think the key is that they’re very portable. They should fit in a jacket pocket or a back pocket, so you can take a picture at a festival or a party.”

“The built-in camera is what stays the same,” he says. “So you can’t change the lens.” “And you don’t have to delve deeper into the technology behind it.”

Since the advent of the smartphone, small cameras have seemed redundant, but there are still advantages to a camera. “You can share with your phone, but it doesn’t feel like you’re actually making something,” Ter Ellen says. “This is a device that’s entirely dedicated to taking pictures.”

The smartphone has already been created according to the camera expert. So you search the internet and flea markets for a camera without the distraction of apps, emails and news. “Just bullshit. Just pictures.”