Digital cameras are back on Tik Tok

by

Is it time to dust off your old camera?

You prepare to go out with Cheryl Cole’s ‘Fight for this love’ playing on repeat as you put on your low-rise jeans, a wide belt and apply the brightest lip gloss you own.

Whatever bag you get, the digital camera that will capture the moments from your night, with mediocre quality photos that will definitely be uploaded to your Facebook “wall” later, is a must-have accessory.

The digital camera was a must in the late 00’s or early 10’s. It showed up during our first attempts to take selfies – with a very mediocre result, with the flash inevitably obliterating half the shot – and captured countless unfiltered moments in all their slightly low resolution glory.

At the time, filters and processing were unfamiliar terms to non-professionals and usually corresponded to actions such as “sepia mode”.

The rapid development of technology brought a significant improvement in mobile phone cameras, which gradually displaced digital cameras, as there was no longer a reason for anyone to carry a bulky object, since they could get the same and better result with just their mobile phone.

Advanced smartphone cameras were followed by Instagram and a whole generation of photo-editing apps, putting various filters on them and making the images look just perfect.

As the whole fashion tends in recent years to gradually turn to the simpler, the same happens with the trends in photography. It’s no coincidence, then, that the digital camera is enjoying an unlikely resurgence, fueled by TikTok, when users started showing off their old devices and retro photos they’d taken and forgotten dusty on a shelf. And yet, this nostalgic trend seems to have quickly turned into a trend, since according to Mashable, the hashtag #DigitalCamera has almost 130 million views.

“This might be a sign that it’s time to get a digital camera,” promise many of the videos, which show nostalgic snapshots with the signature time and date stamp in the corner. There are even tutorials on how to recreate the digital camera effect on an iPhone camera—one video helpfully suggests covering the lens with film and adding lip balm.

The “new” trend has already been adopted even by celebrities, such as Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowsi. It’s all part of a transition from a hyper-filtered aesthetic to something a little messier, but also more authentic.

“Nostalgia is a key factor here,” Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee, cultural analyst at Canvas8, tells stylist.co.uk. In the 00s and early 10s, lomo cameras and Polaroid-style devices grew in popularity as millennials sought to recreate the aesthetic of a previous generation. Now, Gen Z is reclaiming turn-of-the-millennium technology as a retro throwback. “Analog cameras were the devices for a throwback to the aesthetics or familiar visual expressions of the 70s-90s,” he explains. “Now, the point-and-shoot digital cameras of the 2000s are becoming the new hallmark of nostalgia.”

With a smartphone, a filter is just a few clicks away and photos can be perfected in minutes. The digital camera is a simpler affair, encouraging a more authentic, less edited image while offering a reassuring sense of permanence.

“The resurgence of digital cameras may seem ephemeral, but it actually marks more than a passing fad. It acts as a physical repository of our experiences and produces images that usher in an (almost) bygone era of simplicity and reliability,” says Annie Corser, Insights Editor at Canvas8.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you