In the middle of a concert where I was surrounded by Gen Z and younger millennials, I noticed that what some of the kids were using to take photos and videos were not their smartphones but digital cameras. That’s when I realized that the adage that “everything old is new again” is still very much true and that the younger generation was discovering gadgets that my generation thought was already dead. We’re seeing brands come up with different variants of digital cameras and now we’re seeing what might be the smallest yet.
Designer: Kenko Tokina
The Pieni M may seem like a toy at first given its tiny size but it’s actually a fully functional miniature digital camera. The name itself, Pieni, is actually the Finnish word for “small” even though the brand is Japanese. Lest you think that it’s just purely for aesthetic purposes, the tiny camera lets you take photos and videos and can even give you filters to make your multimedia look even more hipster than you initially intended. It looks like just any regular camera except that it’s a miniature version.
The camera even has an LCD display that can show you what it is you’re actually taking a photo or video of. Well, given its size, you may have to squint a bit to be able to fully see what’s on the screen. There is a button on the side that lets you switch between video recording and photographing. And if you’re using it for the former, you can actually record voices and ambient sounds. It also has a feature that gives your photos a watercolor-like look or you can use the other filters available including monochrome, orange, blue, or green.
The device is small enough for regular hands to hold it between your two fingers. There’s a USB port so you can easily transfer your media to your laptop or tablet or you can save it on a microSD card for easy storage and transfer. The Pieni M is available in black or grayish blue but it would also be nice to have it in other cuter colors eventually. Personally, I’d probably still use my smartphone to take photos or videos for better quality but if I wanted something more hipster, then this would be a good device to have.
