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Young Koreans scoop up vintage digital cameras as retro wave continues

Published: 23 May. 2026, 14:31

SEO JI-EUN
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Lee Kyu-tae, 68, organizes vintage digital cameras on the shelves of his shop inside Sewoon Plaza in Jongno District, central Seoul, on May 20. [IM SOUNG-BIN]

On a Wednesday afternoon, the camera shops of Sewoon Plaza in central Seoul were packed with customers in their twenties.

Shelves crammed with hundreds of vintage digital cameras — Ixus, Coolpix, FinePix — drew visitors who scrolled through their phones for model information before picking up each device, turning it over and pressing the shutter.

Early 2000s digital cameras have surged in popularity among young Koreans, bringing new foot traffic to the nearly 60-year-old electronics market in Jongno District. Lines now form on weekdays and weekends alike as shoppers dig through stacks of used stock in search of a find.

"My dad had one of these at home, and I've been getting interested in them again," said Kim Min-seo, 25, who visited with a friend. "There were good deals on secondhand platforms too, but I wanted to hold one before buying."

Shops at Sewoon Plaza have started loading cameras with charged batteries and memory cards so customers can test them on the spot.

Customers cite the retro feel as a key draw.

Kim pulled an iPhone 6 from her bag to illustrate the point — she had gone back to using her old smartphone for its vintage image quality before graduating to a dedicated digicam.

"Old phones started trending for that look, and this is just the next step," she said.

Customers line up outside a vintage digital camera store inside Sewoon Plaza in Jongno District, central Seoul, on May 20, amid a surging retro tech trend. [IM SOUNG-BIN]

Tourists Yasmin, 24, and Nuria, 26, from Germany, said they learned about Sewoon Plaza on TikTok while looking for cameras with a late-1990s aesthetic.

"We barely have memories from that era, but there's something like nostalgia," they said. "The imperfect image quality is the appeal — it feels more in the moment than a smartphone, and those photos stick with you."

Lee Gyu-tae, 68, owner of the Jongno Digital shop, said he had written the market off before the digicam boom reversed his fortunes.

"We used to think a first sale of the day was a good day," he said. "Now I sell five or six cameras on a regular weekday."

Vendors say weekend queues at digicam shops in the building can reach 40 to 60 groups. Prices have risen 50,000 to 100,000 won ($32.9 to $65.8) from last year, with most cameras now selling in the 100,000 to 300,000 won range.

Analysts expect the trend to continue.

Lee Eun-hee, professor emerita of consumer science at Inha University, said retro consumption has proven unusually durable.

"In a society flooded with digital information and intense competition, there is real demand for the sense of calm that analog aesthetics provide," she said, adding that the retro wave could extend to other vintage product categories once the digicam moment passes.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY IM SOUNG-BIN [[email protected]]