The Pocket Camera Is Back, and That's Good News for Photography

Fifteen years ago, the smartphone was supposed to kill the pocket camera. Today, a 2007 Canon PowerShot G9 is worth five times what it was three years ago.

So what’s going on? Three stories crossed our desk this week, and together they show the pocket camera demand.

Three Signs From One Week

• The drawer cameras are worth real money. MPB, the used-gear marketplace, now pays up to $225 for a Canon G9, up from $45 three years ago. That’s the biggest jump on MPB’s list of US used-price increases, and five of the ten cameras on that list are compact. A 2016 Canon G7 X Mark II now fetches up to $880.
• New cheap cameras keep coming. Yashica just announced the Y16, a $119 pocket camera with an optical viewfinder and a xenon flash, about a week and a half after launching its $168 Crew. (The Yashica name now belongs to a Hong Kong licensee, 100 Enterprises.)
• A $170 digicam is beating mirrorless bodies for attention. The 87g Instax Pal 2 topped B&H’s trending cameras list for September, ahead of four OM System PEN models and Canon’s EOS R8 Mark II.

The Numbers 

This is bigger than a few viral videos.  

Shipments of fixed-lens cameras jumped 29.6% in 2025, to about 2.44 million units, their best year since the smartphone took over. The first half of 2026 added another 16%, while mirrorless dipped and DSLRs fell 37%.  

CIPA, the Japanese camera industry group, expects about 2.77 million fixed-lens cameras to ship this year.

And at the top end, the Fujifilm X100VI spent more than two years as one of the hardest cameras in the world to buy.

Why Now?

Here’s our take. Your phone takes great pictures. A camera does one thing. When you pick it up, it’s there to see and make.

Limits help, too. A fixed lens, a little flash and a small screen take the endless options off the table. You stop fiddling and start taking.  

And the look matters. That punchy flash, the quirky colors from an old CCD sensor, the slight imperfections. You look good and you’re signaling you’re fun and having fun while taking pictures. 

It feels like a photograph someone made, it feels like a special moment, which is a big part of the appeal.

Why We Love This

More people are making pictures. That’s great.

Every person who buys a $119 Yashica is one step away from wanting a real viewfinder, then manual controls, then a better lens. The pocket camera has always been a gateway, and the gate is still open.

The Pal 2 even prints to an Instax printer. So a whole new crowd is holding real prints.

Go Check the Junk Drawer

Find that old compact in the drawer, charge the battery and leave your phone at home for a day. See what you notice. Or you’ve moved way past that and now maybe throw it on ebay. 

The smartphone was supposed to kill the pocket camera. Now, it gives people a reason to want one again.

Sources and Links

• Digital Camera World: Canon G9 worth five times more than three years ago
• DPReview: Yashica’s 1950s throwback micro-camera will cost $119
• PetaPixel: Yashica Y16 compact camera
• Digital Camera World: Instax Pal 2 tops B&H
• TechRadar: 2025 compact camera shipments up 29.6%
• CineD: CIPA first-half 2026 numbers
• Digital Camera World: Halfway through 2026, camera sales slowing except two categories

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