Godox C100: A Camera So Cheap It Skips the Color Screen for a Transparent One
Godox's C100 camera swaps a color screen for a transparent LCD viewfinder, costs $29, and is only in China - because sometimes less is more, but mostly less is just less.
Smartphones have turned us all into decent photographers, but apparently, that hasn't stopped the nostalgia train for point-and-shoot cameras. The Kodak Charmera is still a hot commodity, influencers are hunting down ancient Canons on eBay, and now Godox - a company you might know for studio lights - has jumped on the bandwagon with its new C100. The gimmick? It ditches a standard color preview screen for a transparent LCD that doubles as an optical viewfinder. Because why see what you're shooting in full color when you can squint through a window that also tells you your battery life?
The C100's product page is about as detailed as a fortune cookie, offering few specs on sensor resolution or video capabilities. But it does show off that viewfinder, which can display shooting settings and even function as a light meter - measuring brightness and suggesting exposure settings for another camera. Yes, this camera can help you take photos with a different camera, which is either a brilliant feature or the saddest commentary on its own imaging abilities.
Weighing in at a featherlight 65 grams, the C100 captures images and videos in four aspect ratios (16:9 and 1:1 among them), storing them on a microSD card up to 128GB. There's no wireless connectivity, because that would be too convenient, but you can transfer files over USB-C. For now, the C100 is only available in China, with no word on an international release. Pricing? Also TBD on the product page, but Digital Camera World reports it's just ¥199 (about $29), making it cheaper than the Charmera and probably less than the coffee you'll need to figure out how to use it.
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