The tiny digital camera craze is showing no signs of slowing down. Hot on the heels of Kodak’s wildly successful Charmera Keychain Digital Camera comes what appears to be Yashica’s answer to the Charmera phenomenon: the YASHICA Funtastic Keychain Camera.
Like the Charmera, the Funtastic dives headfirst into the current lo-fi trend, putting portability and novelty ahead of image quality while doubling down on the appeal of having a tiny camera clipped to your bag, keys, or wherever else you can find space. At just 63 x 22 x 25 mm and weighing a mere 22 grams, this thing is closer to a charm than a camera.
Under the cute exterior is a 1 MP CMOS sensor capable of capturing 1,440 x 1,080 stills and recording AVI video at 30 fps. A built-in 200 mAh battery handles power duties, while USB-C takes care of charging and file transfers. Storage comes courtesy of a microSD card slot supporting cards up to 64 GB.
Where Yashica hopes to gain an edge over the Charmera is with a 180-degree flip screen. Whether you are taking selfies, recording tiny vlogs, or simply checking if your finger is covering the lens, the little display should come in handy.
The Funtastic lineup currently includes Yashica Boy variants along with licensed Hello Kitty and Peanuts editions featuring Snoopy. In other words, Yashica is banking on it being a collectible and fashion accessory.
And that may be the point. Nobody is buying one of these expecting mirrorless-camera quality. They are buying them because they are adorable, pocketable, and because my friends have one.
The YASHICA Funtastic Keychain Camera is available for pre-order starting at 198 Hong Kong dollars, or about 25 USD.
Images: Yashica.
