2026 battle for the best screenless digital heats up with the final arrival of the Rewinpix PS135. The hype has lead to one of the most successful camera launches via Kickstarter with over 8000 backers pledging more than $1.225 million USD (for an original goal of just $15,000 !!!). It promises a enhanced experience film camera like experience with a better lens, finder and mode choices than rivals wrapped up in an uniquely stylish body. It’s good but there are some woeful own goals

_{Disclaimer: I’ve purchased my own Rewindpix and have not been approached by the company to write this post. I have been sent a Flashback ONE35 V2 to review but I was not paid for that and my opinions on that camera are my own and Flashback have had no influence on my review then or here. Likewise historically I reviewed beta filters from Camp Snap but again received no payment and my views were my own.}

So what we have is another screenless digital. There is no big LCD on the back allowing you to preview and review your images or act as a digital viewfinder. It’s a path tread by several other companies, all trying to catch zeitgeist of a rising interest in lo-fi digital. If you’re expecting Leica M11 quality images perhaps jog on. It’s got a decade old smartphone sensor at it’s core but that’s not untypical of the class. But for Lo-Fi digital fans this worth a look.

The tl:dr ? Click here

Screenless digitals

The modern screenless digital work broadly like any other digital compact. You take your photos and transfer to PC either by using USB or by taking a memory card out. These arguably began with the protype of the Paper Shoot, the 2008 promo freebie that is the Ikea Knäppa. The bulk of screenless digitals are of this type and today usually come with built in flash and swappable filters. This is what Rewindpix calls camera mode.

Film Mode

The second mode is called film mode. You preload your camera with digital film filters using an app and you’re limited to 36 shots in this mode like a role of film. When you’re done you need to upload the images via the app. before “reloading”.

Rewindpix was not the first camera to offer this . The original 2023 Flashback ONE35 did this ages ago. The newer V2 carrys on the tradition and Echolens joined this fray last year.

The difference is that Rewindpix allows you to swap between Film and Camera mode at any point. Meaning if you exhaust your fillm mode shots you can carry on shooting with one of the 3 preset camera mode filters. You can also retrieve anon filtered version of the shot you took in Film mode if you plug in the camera to your PC. I like this as it means if the App dies you can still get the images.

The other film mode feature is a Marmite one. Unlike rivals where you set a single film type you can switch between 3 that you download onto the camera. You can take images with all 3 filters but they all add up to max of 36 shots in film mode.

Looks

The camera used Agfa Optima Sensor models for styling

This is a slightly obscure but well regarded series of 35mm zone/scale & rangefinder focus compact camera launched in the 1970’s . Itt was one of last compact hurrah for German Camera manufacture in a world increasingly dominated dominated by Japanese and Chinese made cameras,

Rewindpix are keen to describe it as distinctive but in a class where your nearest price rivals have swap out paper stone bodies. In fairness it doesn’t go down the line of looking like a typical current al la Dubblefilm show clones lo-fi film camera or the fujifilm-X/Leica-likey approach of others.

It has a Fujifilm X like shutter button you can swap out. Lovely feel.

It’s well built and the swappable shutter button is a nice feature. It’s better than the Echolens & Camp Snap Pro in build quality but is pipped by the robustness of the Flashback ONE35 models.

Layout

It’s cleanly laid out very much in the style of an analogue camera. Like all it’s key rivals. On the front we have just the switch for the Zenon Flash. The lens has a 37mm filter thread which is nice to see. As a KS backer mines came with bonus UV (on camera) and black mist filters.

Top deck is just the shutter button and a cold shoe. The latter is actually brilliant. No one else does this but it allow you to use clip on accessories like a waist finder.

On the rear we get a small monochrome LCD with a switch to select filters/film type. There’s a (M)ode button to switch from camera to film modes and separate button to activate the WIFI.

The sides both have standard string lanyard/wrist strap mount point. On the right (as held) there is a USB-C slot for charging/ PC sync. The base had a metal tripod point and a small screw locked door allowing access to the mSD slot.

In the Box

So like every other camera of late I’ve seen we get a eco friendly cardboard box (except for the Canuck rip off the paper shoot but at least their packing is slim)

Inside we got a mini screw driver for the SD compartment (nice but unnecessary touch) a couple of logo stickers and 2 extra swappable shutter buttons (likely a KS only freebie). There’s a okay quick start guide and a few QR codes to the app but not one to the manual which is frankly not great

There is no provided USB cable.

How is the manual ?

Hmmm. So it’s a reasonable guide for the things it covers and written well. But It doesn’t cover how to charge or move camera mode photos off your camera (yup it’s obvious I know but..). There are no specs but those are on their site (including the porkie pie 13MP)

So it needs a rewrite. I genuinely can see someone shooting in camera mode and then wondering why you can’t upload via the app.

That’s pretty poor versus rivals. But resolvable.

The Spec

So there’s good and bad here. they are totally upfront with their spec which is fantastic. So here’s the list

• Sensor: Sony IMX 258
  • Size: 13 MP 1/3.06″
  • Actual image size: 10.7 MP (3:2)
• Image processor : NT96565MQG
• Lens: 4 Glass 2 plastic elements in 5 groups
  • Aperture: f/2.2 fixed
  • Filter Thread: 43mm
• ISO: 100-6400 ISO (Auto)
• Shutter 1/60-1/2000s
• Theoretical EV_100ISO range : 1.33-13.33 EV
• Focus: 1m-ininity
• Connection/charge : USB-C & WiFi
• Storage : 4GB TF (micro SD)
• Flash: Xenon
• Battery: ??
• Battery life : 250 shots mixed use of flash

That sensor is backlight illuminated RS Exmor class sensor intended for mobile phone use when it launched a decade ago on mid range phones like the Sony Experia XA, One Plus X and the original Xiaomi Redmi Pro. It was well regarded and has had a long life of use with budget phones still being launched with it 3 years ago

It’s not an untypical unit to see on a screenless digital and credit for Rewindpix for being so upfront. The Camp Snap Pro interestingly shares the same on board processing unit from this tear down.

– Hang on the output image is 10MP not 13MP ?

Yeah. I asked Rewindpix and they said they cropped the sensor to give a film like 3:2 ratio. No mention of MP drop is made on either Rewindpix site or their KS page.

That’s despite them proudly displaying it takes 13MP on the front page of their site,

It’s a bit underhand and if it was selling on the UK or EU markets I suspect Trading standards might want a word.

That said although the move has inevitably been up in lo-fi digital MP counts, 10MP is more than adequate for the calss

-The lens sound a bit special ?

The lens is build as the most complex in the class. Sound great but does it make a difference in practice ?

We know this is a fixed focus lens with a small sensor. I’m genuinely not sure what this brings in terms of quality. One of those 6 elements is just a flat protective one at the front. We also don’t really know what construction we have (it’s described as 6 elements in 5 groups)

In use

We’ll ignore the app for the moment. The camera is charged via USB-C and if used in Camera mode you don’t ever need to go near the App. To turn the camera on you need to wind on (if you’ve already cocked the camera you’ll need to fire shutter then wind on. The winding spacing is sensible (take note flashback)

The rear LCD shows you what film or camera mode setting you’re on. The LCD shows the total shots taken in Camera mode as well as the shots left in film mode . These oddly show for both modes which can be confusing. The LCD is poor in bright light you can’t really see it

There’s a toggle switch on rear that lets you cycle between the 3 setting for camera and the 3 for film mode. The LCD shows the filter name. You jump between modes by hitting the M (aka Mode) button. You can swap at any time but in film mode you can take only 36 images in total (not per film type) until you unload the camera via app

Frame your shot. The finder is big and Rewindpix claim it to the best in class. It has hard to use frame lines which are of little use as the finder although good in it entirety doesn’t cover the actual frame

It’s better than any other camera in the class, with the finder showing about roughly ⅔ of the actual sensor frame

— The old lag

Depress shutter for satisfying metallic click. Rewindpix are keen to sell the camera as almost lagless but that’s not true.

I’d keep in place until you see the green LED flashing on the rear. Most of the time it’s not the worst culprit but it’s not brilliant. There’s a slight delay of up tp half a second before the light flashes on rear indicating shot being recorded. If you move you’ll likely get some motion blur. More irritatingly randomly the camera lag can be a few second. It happens less commonly but at least once in a 36 roll IMHO.

The lag issue obvious on flash shots. You activate flash by sliding the switch and wait until Red LED comes on by finder. It’s rear curtain so fires after the shutter opens. That’s common in this class and on many analogue cameras like Lomography’s LC-A+ series. This means the camera will try to expose for background but with a minimum 1/60 shutter time you’d expect the flash to go off before your brain could process it. It doesn’t there’s a 0.5-1sec delay between the shutter click and the flash.

-Connecting the camera

For camera mode shots you just access as any other camera via USB or by taking the card out . Oddly you can also see the unprocessed images from all the film mode shots you’ve taken. This is handy if the app goes to the wall and excellent stuff for a reviewer like me as we can see relatively unprocessed images. These are not deleted unless you do so

For full film mode you must transfer files to the app for processing. I give credit to Rewindpix they make this easy although your smartphone might not. The Camera acts as a Wifi hotspot, hit the W(ifi) button on your camera and a flashing wifi logo appears on the LCD. On your phone select that network and enter the password -one of the top 20 worst passwords but hey you’re using this briefly. You can’t switch this but I digress

Most issues I’ve had is my Google Pixel not liking a connection without internet and its arguable sensible tendency to connect to a proper internet enabled hotspot. Once you force it select this it works well.

-The App

Downloadable from Google and apple stores it’s similar to the rival apps. You’ve 4 tabs. The default tab allows you to connect and download from your camera or swap the film types.

The film stock tab lets you swap out film types for your next upload or create your own stock in the pro mode. There’s a hidden option which lets you re-edit an image with another film stock, But we’ll come back to that in a mo.

The darkroom tab is where the last 3 rolls you unload get stored and processed. Upload a 4th and the oldest roll is deleted so make sure you download,

This tab is disappointing you cant properly preview your images unlike the Echolens and Flashback apps. Even the film strip shows them in a weird format. There was some indication you could do some post editing here using the inbuilt “creative lab”. I’d hoped for Flashback game changing ability to swap film filters on the roll but nope. at the moment all you can do is create double exposures, It’s poor but there is scope to improve.

The final tab is a pretty dull setting menu only really useful to upgrade to pro app support The pro upgrade lets you set custom filters and perhaps gives you more film stocks (sorry i set my app using it so I can’t comment on the ordinary version). :I’ll come back to the film filters later

The pro thing i think is a bit mean . Other rivals sell you the camera and full app access, with notably Echolens offering the same functionality as the Pro version of the Rewindpix without having to cough up an extra $9.90

-Issues

So in addition to issues like lag, there are a couple minor bugs. I’d hope these can be ironed out. The first one may be intended. If using film mode, you have to manually load the camera in app each time you unload the camera. Rivals just load the last film preset which makes more sense. But I guess this could be more immersive I suppose.

What isn’t logical is that if you load film choices and then before shooting connect the camera to PC the camera effectively unloads those film making film mode uselss until reloaded. It doesnt happen if youve taken a shot or 2 in film mode

Putting flash on in daylight causes images to be whited out. This makes no sense to me. EXIF data shows same exposure as on flash shot, And when using flash in night shots there’s no evidence of it leaking in at the lens

Results

For the moment i’m not going to discuss the film types but the purer base images on which they’re formed. So if we take this shot shot on the BWHC film type (aka B&W high contrast)

Actually is store unfiltered on the camera as this

Image quality

so rewinpix from their site promises

“Best In Class Image Quality

With 4g2p lens, Sony sensor and powerful chips, Rewindpix provides best-in-class (Screen free camera) image quality. No interpolation, no sharpening, native 13MP image.”

_{^{Rewindpix main site July 2026}}

Hmmm… as we’ve seen this does not produce 13MP images. So the rest you need to take with a pinch of salt

The no interpolation seems to be the case (this actually reduces the potential image size)

Radially there is a wafer thin level of pincushion distortion. We get some fall off in the corners. It’s good in the class but no better than the CS Pro or new Flashback in that regard. There’s not significant chromatic aberrations either. On the unfiltered shots there is also a tiny bit of vignetting in the corner.

Focus range is said to be about 1m to infinity. I’d probably shoot from 2m beyond as my experience and back calculating the Depth of field range would suggest that’s a better number to. As is almost always the case it softens off at very long distances when you zoom in and the corners are also softer. But I’m really seeing no spectacular gain of the 6 element lens over rivals here.

-Compared to Rivals and close crops

The image quality looking at the unfiltered files is okay. but it’s not better than any rivals. Take these shots they’re all recorded at 100ISO although not on the same day. We have unprocessed images from the Rewindpix and Flashback ONE35 V2 as well as the a CS Pro Standard filter image.

The rewidnpix and Flashback images are captured in good cloudy light where as teh CS Pro image is getting near sunset.

If we crop down to 640×640 over the figure on the arch bar, There is next to nothing in image quality between the Flashback and the Rewindpix. there is more noise on the CS Pro image but it is filtered and processed

And what’s telling is when you look at processed images on the Rewindpix in Camera mode they’re actually worse.

Tske this shot.

With close cropping we get sharpening and other compression issues. They’re not awful but I really can’t call it best in class especially when it’s just 10MP

This is at 100ISO. It’s hard to get this camera to shoot much between 100 ISO and >1000 ISO due to the wide apertiue but the odd shots straying around 200-300 ISO show more noise.

–Lower light And Flash

This is very evident when zoomed in as you go above 1600ISO, But although this 6400 ISO flash shot looks like an oil painting when zoomed in at 6×4″ size it looks alright

Forget low light shots the same noise issue makes them poor. This camera flats out 1/60 f/2.2

– Exposure

So in straightforward lighting this does okay but with rear lighting it seems to underexpose more frequently. it’s an issue for the class as a whole. Some film modes seem to have a degree of under exposure built in.

As to dynamic range. Yeah it is what it says on the tin, it’s smartphone sensor from a decade ago so not brilliant nor awful. Can bloom a bit

-Filters in Camera mode

The 3 filters currently are fixed. You get an obligatory reasonable B&W (see above). It’s middle to low contrast. The other 2 filters are fine but don’t quite make sense both being present. They’re called sunny warm and Breezy cool . They have slight shifts with the Sunny warm favouring and slightly tinted to the re end and the Breezy cool more blue

A normal (unfiltered) plus the Sunny warm would have made more sense or sunny warm plus a vintage style filter

Unlike the Paper Shoot or CS Pro there is currently no way of swapping these filters. That looks like it is changing as their site is currently showing experimental variants which are due for launch this month

-Film mode filters

With 36 “films” at the time of typing you’re spoilt for choice. That’s way more out of the box than the Echolens or Flashback camera. Many are intended to simulations of film stocks . And like Echolens you can create your own in App from an existing film or scratch.

But whilst that’s good new and there’s more to follow, there are some issues.

–The good stuff

There are some outstanding filters here. This camera has been heavily trailed on Retrocine. This is intended for Golden and blue hour shooting but to be frank shoot it daylight and you get those exaggerated hues of Ferrania Solaris FG+ 200 (aka Truprint FG+ 200) bar the greens

It’s a riotously good filter but is it film like ? Just keep that in mind.

—Noir-tastic

Black and white filters offer good choices and are all different. The BWHC (B&W HC) film filter works the best. It’s meant to resemble Rollei Retro 80s a film derived from aerial surveillance stock which has low grain and high contrast (althout its notoriously fickle re development (see Alex Luyckx’s excellent tear down of various development approaches).

The non film type B&W are riot too.

The BWIR is quite special. It’s not really an infrared look (the trees are dark not white as you’d expect although the sky and water seem on the money. Images also have a slight fringe effect which you don’t see in other filters. I’m going to play with this more.

Sabattier doesn’t feel like a true Sabattier effect more like a negative image but again fun to have.

Some film simulations are on the money. GL200 is a reasonable crack at the palette of Kodak Gold 200 but isn’t grainy enough IMHO.

But it does look similar here (depending on your processing).

Some of the non film based filter work well. I’d argue that LCLook is a good palette shoe in for film .

Although that filter by name and look, you’d think was inspired by the humble LC-A.

But nope and my apologises to some of you whom are likely to ejaculate your cuppa over your monitor/laptop, It’s meant to “..captures the raw, authentic soul of every street scene, just like a Leica”.

–The not so good

Whilst some simulation filters like GL400 and BWHC are nearly on the money, many are not so great. They’re not awful filters but they just don’t look like what they say they are.

—These are not the filters you are looking for

So you know Kodak Portra 400. A much loved naturalistic toned film from Kodak intended for portrait work but widely used to give a natural feel like this shot taken on my LC-A 120.

And here’s the standard version on the RewindPix (PT400)

I’d argue they missed a trick . They could have called it Kodak Colorplus or Ektrachrome. The low contrast (PT400LC) is a little better

The Agfa Vista 200 simulation (VS200) is off as well

Far to saturated. I get it was a warm film but reall someone’s gone spinal tap here

Another issue is many of your 36 films is made up of several subtle versions of other films. Take the Kodak Gold film filter. There are subtle 4 versions (Expired, low contrast, vivid and the original) not counting the GLDISP which is meant to look like Gold 800 in a disposable but really is a 5th version.

—Grain ?

And in both Film and camera mode it struggles to give a film like feel. There’s little to no grain.

That the BW film filter. By it’s own blurb, it is meant to resemble legendary Ilford HP5. The app describes this as “mild contrasty and iconic silver halide grain“. I think the mild is an example of English being a second language as HP5 is medium contrast film but in fairness so is the BW filter. But that’s not the problem

It takes a nice pic but…. Zoom in.

Is the iconic silver halide Grain in the room ?
No not really. and that’s a recurrent issue lots of film are known to be grainy but the filters don’t quite match.

–Go you own way

You can fiddle with your own filter setting which is nice. But the game has changed for the good has changed since the camera launched their site now has a list of custom filters made by other users (41 at the time of typing)

They list the formula and any base film you use (the lomoChrome Colour ’92 Sun-kissed from above is built on Retrocine. It looks better than some of the other stock option.

All good and well and you can make your own in app as well. I’m a bit critical the grain slider doesn’t really add a grain feel, the vignette slider is frankly Pi$s poor and there no field distortion that might make the image look more like they’ve been taken on a hunk of junk film camera. It an interesting toss between this and Echolens’ editor

Cost v Rivals

Mines came as early bird from KS for just $109USD plus postage. However the MSRP was supposed to be $169USD.

This would make it the most expensive camera in class. But they’re now (early Oct 2026) selling it for $119USD. That makes sense as it allows them to go head to head against the Flashback ONE35 V2 which reamisn the camera to beat in the film like class. The Echolens looks like it has vanished as the site is down and the insta profile has gone private. On balance I think the RewindPix is better than the Echolens but not the Flashback in film mode.

There’s tons of clones in the camera mode category. If I focus on the big boys the camp Snap pro still under cuts it $99. It’s also the only one of these camera to gain high street traction in the UK with Argos & Currys selling it and the non pro models. It lags less although is just behind in image quality. Further down the feeding pool image wise the grande-dame of lo-fi photog Papershoot. $158.50 will sort you a Paper Shoot 20MP (64GB card & case). It’s images although crapper technically are more film like than most.

Rewindpix Final Thoughts – So close but ..

Look there’s a lot to like but…

It’s a veritable Swiss army knife of a camera well built and offering a vast range of features that no single camera currently can match. It has a vast array of film filters and the only camera to offer 2 types of shooting modes in the class. Wanna shoot until you’re full like the Camp Snap ? no problem. Want an immersive film like experience with limited shots and the app D&P experience ? Film mode’s gotcha although you’ll either love or hate the switchable film. Want Both ? you got it

Xenon Flash, Filter ring, Unprocessed film mode shots available even if the app goes dead You got it.

It’s naked images are at times as good as the best rivals….

But…

The fact this is promoted as 13MP when in fact you get 10MP image is dodgy AF. Those images are no better than rivals and the lag taking them can be horrendous.

The various film mode filters are a mixed bag. There are some genius filters like Retrocine and the BWHC come pretty close to a Rollei Retro 80s experience. But many film simulation filters are badly wide of the mark and there’s a lot of repetition with subtle variants meaning the 36 filters are more like 20. The ability to edit is good but even then you can’t really get the film like feel of the Flashback and I’d argue even the Paper Shoot.

Some of these issues may be fixable via firmware and more easily by spending sometime sorting out the film filters. Sort this out and the dodgy MP count and we may have a class winner. For now The Flashback still does the film look better.