The Kodak Charmera has been one of the hipster hits of 2025, being a cute/retro keychain camera that is produced and marketed under Kodak brand licensing. Indeed, Kodak-branded compacts continue to sell well, particularly in Japan.
While the Charmera itself is little more than a cool novelty device – it takes cute 1.6M megapixel images via a fixed-focus M7 lens – an enterprising uber-nerd in China has figured out a way to add a conventional, full-sized lens to one.
It’s a bit of a performance, but it makes the Charmera much more versatile.
‘Macrodeon’s’ clever work-around involves (carefully) breaking the Charmera open and separating the lens mount from the tiny sensor.
He then glues a C mount to the front – C mount lenses are widely used for CCTV and in other commercial and industrial applications, and a range of adaptors are available to house more conventional lenses for enthusiast photographers.
While this may seem a fun project to try between Christmas and new year it’s a bit of a fiddly process, but as Macrodeon shows, it certainly can be done with care and the right tools. As he also explains, this is a work in progress, so we can expect more from this ingenious camera hacker in 2026.
Watch the YouTube video below – while the auto translation sometimes generates garbled English, you should be able to get the gist of how Macrodoen managed to add a conventional lens to a Kodak Charmera.
Thanks to Hackaday.com for alerting us to this story.
You can buy the Kodak Charmera camera below.
