It’s been the talk of the photo industry for more than a year now – compact cameras are back. The fixed-lens all-in-one camera had until recently been thought a moribund format, obliterated by the smartphone, soon for the scrapheap. But in the 2020s, all has changed.
Across the price spectrum, you can find compact camera success stories. Kodak absolutely dominated camera sales in 2025 with its super-cheap range of small-sensor PixPro compacts, with bridge-style and waterproof options – and also scored a viral hit with the 1.6MP Charmera keychain camera.
Meanwhile, at the high-end, premium compacts like Fujifilm’s X100VI and Ricoh’s GR IV have flown off the shelves. And in the middle, Canon’s perennially popular PowerShot G7 X Mark III continues to sell and sell.
Social media has been a big factor in the compact’s renewed success, with TikTok virality driving sales of the G7 X Mark III and X100VI. Retro trend-chasing has also been responsible for the popularity of cheap compacts – this is anecdotal, but I commonly see young people out in London with the kinds of cheapo digital compacts I used to bring on student nights out back in the year [redacted].
But the whys and hows of the compact camera’s revival have been discussed to death. I’m less interested in that than in what it means for the future. My hope is that we’re about to enter a new golden age of the compact camera – a renaissance, if you will. That we’re going to see some real innovation – and competitive pricing – from camera manufacturers who want a piece of this pie.
Because let’s be honest – the mirrorless camera sector has been feeling pretty stale lately, particularly at the ‘affordable’ end. A glut of uninspiring 24MP all-rounders, the cheapest of which – the Canon EOS R100 – still costs close to $500 without a lens. (I have some bad news for camera manufacturers – people often come to me asking for buying advice on a first camera, and when I ask them what their budget is, they invariably quote a number far below that).
Whereas compacts are exciting again! New compacts like the Charmera, the Camp Snap and the Fujifilm X half may not all be to my taste, but they’re different. They feel like something fresh and interesting to talk about, something that might actually pique the interest of a person who’s not already into cameras. And Canon’s most innovative and interesting camera lately has been the PowerShot V1, a clear attempt to replicate the success of the PowerShot G7 X Mark III.
So, let’s have more! Let’s see Sony resurrect the RX100 travel compacts for a new generation. Let’s see some Fujifilm zoom compacts like the X30. A low-light specialist successor to the Panasonic Lumix LX100 II. We know the demand is there, all the way up and down the price spectrum. And the more manufacturers that throw their hats into the ring, the better the results will be for everyone.
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