Young people are clamouring to have their Instagram photos look like they were taken around the time people were worried about Y2K wrecking the world’s computers.
Driving the news: Sales of digital cameras have more than doubled in the past five years to US$5.5 billion in 2025, driven by a growing cohort of young people swapping their iPhones for old-school point-and-shoots.
The digital camera revival has been a life raft for the industry after years of declining sales. After peaking in 2010 with 121 million cameras sold, the introduction of the smartphone cut sales to just 7.7 million by 2023. Last year, however, it inched up to 9.4 million.
There’s been a similar resurgence in film cameras. Sales of Fujifilm’s Instax cameras (which print out photos like the old Polaroids) have now eclipsed the entire digital camera market.
Why it’s happening: Canadians spend an average of over six hours on their devices daily. After finally shutting their laptops at the end of the workday, people are starting to seek out more experiences, hobbies, and shared spaces that don’t involve staring at their devices.
Outside of the camera revival, there’s been a surge in offline social events that are now drawing crowds of thousands in cities across the world. Other so-called analog activities like knitting, reading magazines, and listening to records are also seeing a resurgence.
Our take: It may not be realistic to completely decouple from our devices these days, but there’s an obvious space in the market for activities and products that help people get off their screens, at least for a while.—LA
