# Bring back the Casio Exilim

> Cheap retro-style compacts are selling fast, so why is the one brand that actually did slim right sitting it out?
- Title: Bring back the Casio Exilim · Digital Camera World | Shortify
- Summary: Cheap retro-style compacts are selling fast, so why is the one brand that actually did slim right sitting it out? The compact camera revival is running on…
- Keywords: cameras, casio, compact cameras, nostalgia, photography, Bring, back, Exilim, Digital Camera World
- Source: Digital Camera World — https://digitalcameraworld.com/cameras/compact-cameras/casios-slender-exilim-compact-camera-range-was-once-dominant-but-disappeared-i-think-its-time-for-someone-to-bring-it-back
- Published: 2026-09-13T11:35:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: cameras, casio, compact cameras, nostalgia, photography
## The zombie brand problem
Basic fixed-lens snapshot cameras are selling well right now, but most come from brand licensees rather than real camera makers. They offer almost nothing that wasn't around in 2006.

> It's as if we've rewound the clock to 2006 and removed its battery.
## One brand left out
Amid the compact revival, nobody has looked at Casio. The watch company sold its own point-and-shoots from 2002 to 2018, and sold them well.
## Credit card sized, literally
Casio merged 'extraordinary' and 'slim' into the name Exilim. With retractable zoom lenses, the bodies really were credit card sized in height and width.

> a wearable card camera
## Why it shut down
Compact sales collapsed at the end of the decade and losses piled up before the revival arrived. Casio closed its camera division entirely.
## Wearable is back in fashion
Exilims were sold as wearable compacts, a pitch that lands again with young buyers who want the camera to be part of the outfit.

> today's bling-obsessed youngsters
## Casio actually innovated
The S100 shipped the world's first ceramic lens. The EX-F1 shot 60fps bursts at full resolution, and the earlier QV-10 was the first digicam with a TFT LCD.
## Beaten by the phone
None of that engineering mattered once casual shooters decided the camera in their pocket phone was good enough. The last Exilim was the Japan-only EX-100 in 2014.

> most casual snappers moved on to just buying the latest camera phone
## Someone should buy the name
Casio never chased enthusiasts, it owned the small-sensor snapshot lane, which is exactly the lane booming now. If Casio won't return, a licensee should.

> surely there is a potential licensor out there who might be
## Key takeaway

The compact camera revival is running on nostalgia brands with no new ideas, and Casio's Exilim line is the one that could bring back both the style and the engineering.