Film Photography is Back, Baby and Digital Cameras Should be Shaking in Their Hot Shoes Right Now
Jul 13, 2025
David Prochnow
Our resident “how-to” project editor, David Prochnow, lives on the Gulf Coast of the United States in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He brings his expertise at making our photography projects accessible to everyone, from a lengthy stint acting as the Contributing How-To Editor with Popular Science magazine. While you don’t have to actually build each of his projects, reading about these adventures will contribute to your continued overall appreciation of do-it-yourself photography. A collection of David’s best Popular Science projects can be found in the book, “The Big Book of Hacks,” Edited by Doug Cantor.
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Back, by popular demand, film photography is experiencing a revival and the sales rankings are eyeopening. From the week of June 16, 2025 through June 22, 2025, four of the top 20 compact cameras sold in the Japan market were film cameras. That’s 1-in-5 cameras of this photographic category were film cameras. Granted, these are instant film cameras, but nonetheless they were film cameras.
[Please note: Throughout this article the sales data has been complied from the BCN+Retail Web site. These data are only from the Japanese market and are not worldwide rankings. The worldwide sales figures are more typically provided by Camera & Imaging and Products Association (CIPA). Unfortunately, these CIPA data lack the granularity of the BCN+retail data. Therefore, this article only examines the Japanese market.]
For your review, the updated history for the worldwide shipments of digital camera and lens sales can be found in the CIPA May 2025 report ().
Picture Perfect Data
Film fans get your popcorn ready; here are the top 20 best-selling cameras from the Compact Digital Camera category recorded by BCN+Retail:
- 1. Panasonic Lumix TZ99 Black (aka ZS99)
- 2. Kodak FZ55
- 3. Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II
- 4. Kodak WPZ2
- 5. Kodak FZ45
- 6. Kenko Tokina
- 7. Panasonic Lumix TZ99 White
- 8. Fujifilm Instax mini EVO Brown
- 9. Fujifilm Instax mini EVO Black
- 10. Fujifilm Instax mini LiPlay Misty White
- 11. Kodak C1
- 12. Nagaoka Trading movio
- 13. OM System TG-7 Black
- 14. Panasonic Lumix FZ85D
- 15. Ricoh Imaging Pentax WG-1000 Gray
- 16. Fujifilm Instax mini LiPlay Matcha Green
- 17. Fujifilm X Half Charcoal Silver
- 18. Kodak FZ55 Red
- 19. Graphic Guides Design Co Escura InstantSnap White
- 20. Fujifilm X Half Black
[The original data can be seen in this report for Compact Digital Camera.]
Although film camera sales were concentrated in the Compact Digital Camera rankings, in the interest of thoroughness, here are the top 20 cameras from the Digital SLR category for your review:
[See this report, Digital SLR.]
- 1. Canon EOS R10 Single Zoom Kit
- 2. Sony ZV-E10 II Power Zoom Lens Kit
- 3. Sony ZV-E10 Power Zoom Lens Kit
- 4. Sony ZV-E10 II Double Zoom Lens Kit
- 5. Canon EOS R50 Double Zoom Kit
- 6. Sony ZV-E10 Power Zoom Lens Kit White
- 7. Sony a6400 Double Zoom Lens Kit
- 8. Nikon Z50II Double Zoom Kit
- 9. Canon EOS R50 Double Zoom Kit White
- 10. OM System OM-3 Body
- 11. Olympus PEN E-P7 EZ Double Zoom Kit Silver
- 12. Nikon Z fc Single Zoom Lens Kit Silver
- 13. Canon EOS R50 V Single Zoom Lens Kit
- 14. Panasonic Lumix G100D W Kit
- 15. Canon EOS R50 Single Zoom Lens Kit Black
- 16. Nikon Z fc Single Zoom Lens Kit Black
- 17. Nikon Z 30 Double Zoom Kit
- 18. Nikon Z5II Body
- 19. Panasonic Lumix G100D K Kit
- 20. Canon EOS R50 Single Zoom Lens Kit White
Coupled with this film camera surge, the overall sales forecast for the entire photographic equipment sector in 2025 is positive. In fact, in May 2025, CIPA recorded 911,966 units of cameras were shipped worldwide. That’s a 122.6% increase over May 2024. WOW, it’s a great time to be a photographer.
Enjoy.
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David Prochnow
Our resident “how-to” project editor, David Prochnow, lives on the Gulf Coast of the United States in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He brings his expertise at making our photography projects accessible to everyone, from a lengthy stint acting as the Contributing How-To Editor with Popular Science magazine. While you don’t have to actually build each of his projects, reading about these adventures will contribute to your continued overall appreciation of do-it-yourself photography. A collection of David’s best Popular Science projects can be found in the book, “The Big Book of Hacks,” Edited by Doug Cantor.
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