On my last trip, I spent every morning walking to Starbucks for coffee and a pastry with a camera in tow – which is why one of the coffee roaster’s new merchandise caught my eye. The Starbucks Retro Digital Camera is a compact camera with dual sensors and holiday-inspired colors.
I love a good retro camera design, and the Starbucks camera delivers with a metallic body and leather-like wrap. Even better, one of them comes in rose gold with a burgundy wrap, while the other is a green wrap and a silver body. The look is both retro and holiday all in one.
Details on the camera’s specs are slim – although it’s clear that there’s both a main sensor and a small selfie-camera at the back where a viewfinder would typically be. The photos also show two dials at the top, a flash, a large screen at the back, and of course, a circular Starbucks logo on the front.
The Starbucks camera launched as part of the company’s Rewards Kit ahead of the holiday season in November. But, you can’t find the camera anywhere you can pick up a Tall Pepermint Mocha – the camera launched exclusively in mainland China.
While that means I won’t be able to buy one, I can’t help but wish there were more retro cameras with a rose gold body just like it. The specs are probably not fantastic – it costs 198 yuan (which is about $28 / £20 / AU$42 / CA$39) – but Starbucks has to get some points here for the design. Although, of course, the more likely culprit is that the coffee company bought the camera from a camera manufacturer and added the logo and catchphrase.
Admittedly, when I first saw the Starbucks camera, I thought that it was an internet hoax, as several publications were sharing images with telltale AI glitches, including strange text. But, I reached out to Starbucks press relations, who confirmed that the camera was launched in November for the rewards program and sent me a press kit of images without the AI glitches (and Exif data indicating that they had in fact been taken with a real camera, the Fujifilm X-H2).
The Starbucks Retro Digital Camera isn’t the brand’s first time including a camera among their merchandise, either, as they previously partnered with Lomography to launch a Lomo’Instant Automat Starbucks Edition. Cameras and coffee make a pretty good combination, if you ask me.
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