Kodak Sends Its Viral Charmera Keychain Camera Back to the Year 2000

When the original Charmera dropped last September, the $30 keychain camera from Kodak (well, Kodak licensee Reto Production) sold out almost immediately. It’s also continued selling out with every restock. Turns out people really do want a matchbox-sized 1.6MP camera clipped to their bag.

Now wave two has arrived, and it’s dressed head to toe for New Year’s Eve 1999.

The Millennium Edition treatment is purely cosmetic, and that’s kind of the point. The six new shells trade the original’s retro looks for high-gloss metallic finishes spanning silver, green, orange, pink, navy, and a black number wearing full Kodak Gold film livery.

Everything sells blind box style again, so you won’t know which design you pulled until the box is open. Each standard shell carries 1-in-6 odds, while the secret seventh version swaps last year’s transparent chase shell for a full-chrome, mirror-finish unit that Reto pegs at 1-in-48.

Under the metallic paint, nothing has changed. You still get a 1.6MP 1/4-inch CMOS sensor behind a 35mm-equivalent f/2.4 lens, 1440 x 1080 stills, 30fps AVI video, a tiny rear display with an optical window viewfinder, USB-C charging, and a bring-your-own microSD slot. At 30 grams, it still fits on the keychain nicely.

The software did get some love, though. Photo mode picks up seven new filters, including Coral, Honey, Teal, and Violet “Pixel” tones built to mimic the janky color processing of early-2000s digicams.

There are also four new frames that wrap your shots in a video player interface, a digicam monitor readout, a pixelated CRT border, or a text overlay. In other words, your photos can now look like they were pulled off a Handycam tape in 2003, no VCR required.

The Charmera Millennium Edition runs $34.99 per blind box (up five bucks from last year) or $209.94 for the Whole Set, which guarantees all six standard designs with the chrome secret edition potentially swapping in for one. Preorders are live now through Kodak’s Reto-run web store with shipping expected mid-July, and B&H has stateside listings up as well. Reto is capping orders at two singles and one set per checkout this time around, which tells you everything you need to know about how round one went.

Kodak Charmera Millennium Edition

Kodak’s viral blind box keychain camera returns with six high-gloss metallic shells, a 1-in-48 chrome chase edition, and the same gloriously bad 1.6MP camera underneath.

Learn More: B&H Photo