The rage for retro has yet to subside, with many of the season's most popular and stylish products arriving swaddled in the warm glow of yesteryear. If your to-buy-for list has physical media purists, analog aficionados, crate-diggers, or other lovers of old things, you might find the right item in the below gift guide.
Audio
Perhaps nowhere else is the yen for retro stronger than in the realm of music and audio. Physical media sales across all formats—vinyl, cassette, and CDs—continue to rise, while artists are releasing new material to the old formats. An old media player might be the perfect gift for someone whose shopping cart has both Taylor Swift and Joni Mitchell.
For the Y2K-philes, consider the Coby Portable CD Player. Coby keeps the shape and functionality of the old portable CD players of the early 2000's, while remaining inexpensive and easy to use. Running on AA batteries, the Portable CD Player comes with 3.5mm-jack wired earbuds for out-of-the-box use.
For a more hybrid, retro-futuristic vibe, try the FiiO DM13 Portable Stereo CD Player with Bluetooth, which takes multiple wired headphone types in addition to its Bluetooth compatibility. Additionally, a USB CD Ripping function lets you go full pirate mode to a compatible USB-C drive.
Before the CD was the cassette, which has its own set of retro aesthetics and vibes. FiiO also makes the CP13 Portable Stereo Cassette Player, bringing a similar design aesthetic as the DM13 CD Player to the cassette, but without the Bluetooth functionality. Elegant and streamlined, its internal, rechargeable battery delivers 13 hours of playback and 268 days of standby time, with an optimized playback mechanism that gets the best audio it can from your vintage physical media.
For an even more premium contemporary cassette experience, WE ARE REWIND offers the WE-001 Portable Bluetooth Cassette Player in a number of different colorways and editions, like the linked Elvis edition that comes with The King's Christmas Album. The WE-001 offers both Bluetooth and wired headphone compatibility and features a record button for creating your own mixtapes.
Pair the cassette player with WE ARE REWIND's EQ-002 [Freddie] Wireless On-Ear Headphones for the full retro look, modern tech experience while listening to your latest playlist-turned-mixtape.
For the OG vinyl crowd listening at home, Audio-Technica offers the sleek, midcentury modern AT-LP70XBT Fully Automatic Belt-Drive Turntable with Bluetooth. The AT-LP70XBT plays both 33-1/3 and 45 rpm records and has a built-in switchable phono preamp that can be connected directly to a home stereo, powered speakers, and other components in addition to its wireless Bluetooth output.
Video
Lo-fi video continues to enchant, with VHS effects and digital camcorders sprouting up across content. However, a few products are linking the feel of the past with more contemporary tech, keeping the vintage feel without requiring an investment in the entire old-tech ecosystem.
First is the CS-8 Digital Video Camera from Camp Snap, who first made waves with their screen-free digital photo cameras. The CS-8 takes design inspiration from the iconic Super 8 camera, using a 2.7K video sensor and film-style filters to record bursts of footage at the press of its trigger. A cold shoe mount allows riggers to build out a creative setup with additional accessories. Its handle, dials, buttons, and viewfinder all recreate the experience of shooting a vintage film camera, while its aspect ratio options optimize the video output for social media. The CS-8 records native audio and supports external microphones with a 3.5mm jack.
FUJIFILM's instax mini Evo Cinema Hybrid Instant Camera takes a similar design approach while retaining the hands-on, physical instax object for a truly unique hybrid experience. Drawing similar Super 8 inspiration, the mini Evo Cinema captures videos up to 15 seconds long that can then be replayed through the app or by scanning a QR code printed on the resulting instax image. The app also allows for stitching together longer videos made up of the 15-second clips produced in the camera. The camera's Gen Dial offers filters that recreate the visual and audio character of different decades of imaging history, from the grainy charm of 8mm film to the polished look of modern digital media.
Photo
Photography has been no less in the thrall of nostalgia, with retro stylings dating back to the earliest days of digital photography. Whether it's the resurgence of film, the love affair with rangefinder design, or the latest digicam trend, photographers have shown plenty of appetite for ways of making pictures that go beyond the smartphone.
Alluded to earlier, one way camera designers have recreated the older photography experience is eliminating the rear LCD screen and instant image review. Flashback's ONE35 V2 does just that, a "digital disposable" that recreates the experience of shooting a disposable film camera with a fixed focus lens, xenon flash, and winding dial. Its 13MP sensor "preloads" a film filter and allows 27 exposures before you're required to "develop" them on the accompanying app.
Alternately, you could bypass the digital recreation and go straight to the thing itself. B&H still sells many film disposable cameras such as the QuickSnap Flash 400 One-Time-Use Disposable Camera from FUJIFILM. Offering 27 exposures of vintage, ISO 400 filmstock, the QuickSnap Flash brings that old film feeling of screen-free anticipation into the modern day.
For someone who's less of a screen radical and just loves the lo-fi charm of Y2K-era digital images, consider the Kodak Charmera Key Chain Digital Camera. Offered in blind box format with seven vintage designs, the palm-sized camera takes inspiration from Kodak's first-ever single-use camera, the Fling, for a delightfully retro shooting experience. The Charmer also shoots video and features four frames and seven filters for adding a fun look to your images, including a classic time and date stamp.
Computer
While computing has had less of a nostalgic revival than other categories, there are still a few options for retro accessories. Keyboards, in particular, are a popular choice for adding some vintage panache to a computing setup. AZIO offers a typewriter-inspired keyboard, Retro Classic BT Wireless Backlit Mechanical Keyboard, putting black, round, aluminum keycaps atop a wood-finished surface. Its mechanical keys emulate the tactile feedback of midcentury typing.
For a more retro-digital flavor, consider a Retro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard from 8BitDo. The linked Commodore M edition delivers all the blocky-beige charm of an early 90's clickity-clack keyboard, with wireless Bluetooth or 2.4G connectivity. The company also offers editions styled for vintage Commodore 64, Nintendo, Xbox, and Famicom systems. Each comes with dual Super Buttons, while the Commodore 64 also features a Super Stick joystick.
These options do not exhaust the retro-inflected offerings available at B&H. For more nostalgia-tinged gift options, check out our SuperStore—or, perhaps, our Used Department.
