// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
Digital cameras and wired earphones are back - and 'a bit more real'
It's Saturday afternoon and I've nearly fallen at the first hurdle – I've left my digital camera battery on charge at home.
Forgive me, I last took this camera out with me 15 years ago on a family holiday to the Canary Islands.
Take two. Now with the charged battery in hand, I'm taking my digital camera to a DJ set as an experiment.
It's because older technology is having a bit of a moment – social media is full of people talking about why they're going back to basics with the likes of digital cameras, wired headphones and early MP3 players.
Sales of iPods and Walkman portable audio players in the UK on eBay increased by nearly 50% in 2025, the online marketplace told us, while searches for iPod minis on the platform have increased by 48% over the last year.
The same photo is taken on a digital camera (left) and a smartphone (right) - which do you prefer?
Luckily I'm out with my photography-loving best friend, who helps adjust the settings on the camera and gets snapping while I'm otherwise engaged on the dancefloor.
The mere sight of us pulling out the camera and squinting through its tiny viewfinder draws attention – "I've not seen one of these in years", a man remarks.
He's right – digital cameras had their heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s, just before smartphones took off.
There are currently 42 million active film camera users globally, more than a third of these aged 18–30 and largely influenced by social media trends, according to a market research report, external last year.