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Compact cameras and the digicam revival
Why a 2019 point-and-shoot costs more used than it did new, and which compacts the hype skipped entirely. Prices in this guide are live: they come from the previous night's crawl and change as the market does.
Last updated July 2026
Somewhere around 2023, the internet decided that the point-and-shoot, a category phones had left for dead, was cool again. The look got a name, digicam, and the cameras got a price chart that goes up and to the right. I understand the appeal completely. Half of why I love my $85 Olympus is that its photos come out a little dreamy, a little wrong, in a way my phone would never permit.
What I don't understand is paying the markup, because the revival's pricing makes no sense at all, and this site exists to show you exactly how little sense it makes.
The hype tax, measured
A used Canon G7X Mark III, the compact every vlogger holds at arm's length, starts at $1,223. It listed for $749 in 2019. That's 163% of MSRP for a camera Canon still makes. Meanwhile the Panasonic ZS100, with the same 1-inch sensor size and a longer zoom, starts at $194. The difference isn't the pictures. It's the algorithm.
We watch these premiums move every night. They shrink after restocks and swell after every viral video, so before paying one, open the model page and check where today sits in the 90-day chart. The same rule from the street cameras guide applies here: let someone else pay the peak.
The picks the hype missed
Ordered cheap to less cheap. Prices are the lowest used price we tracked last night; the pill shows where that sits against MSRP.
2012, small sensor, fast f/1.4 lens, and every bit of the look people are chasing. Costs less than a nice dinner.
Shots from this camera on Flickr →
A 1-inch sensor and a 10x zoom for a fifth of what its own sibling the ZS200 goes for. Nobody has made a TikTok about it yet. Hurry.
Shots from this camera on Flickr →
Pop-up viewfinder, f/1.8-2.8 zoom, pocketable. The best $240 in the whole compact catalog right now.
Shots from this camera on Flickr →.jpg?width=480)
The last and best RX100, with autofocus from Sony's sports cameras, at 42% of list. The hype tax skipped it because it isn't retro. Its loss.
Shots from this camera on Flickr →
A Four Thirds sensor and a fast zoom in a coat pocket. Holding steady right at MSRP, which counts as a bargain in this section of the market.
Shots from this camera on Flickr →
One generation behind the internet's favorite vlogging camera, same sensor size, half the price. The photos do not know which generation took them.
Shots from this camera on Flickr →Camera photos: Wikimedia Commons.
If you want the look, not the logo
Be honest about which one you're buying. If you want the digicam look, the slightly soft, slightly wrong, flash-lit charm, you want an old small-sensor camera, and the LX7 at $146 delivers it as well as anything on a mood board. If you want a great pocket camera, the unglamorous RX100 VII at 42% of list is the actual bargain of the category. The expensive mistake is paying the retro premium while wanting the modern result.
And check the battery before you buy any of these. Old compacts die two deaths: the battery model goes out of production, and the proprietary charger vanishes into a drawer in a previous owner's house. A camera with USB charging ages a decade better than one without. The rest of the used-buying checklist is in how to test a camera before you buy.
Go take the pictures
The digicam kids have one thing exactly right: a small camera you actually carry beats a great camera at home, and a camera that makes photos feel fun beats both. Just don't pay $1,200 to learn it. The ZS100 is right there.