Which Cameras Need Remakes in 2025?

I've had many a digital camera that I've regretted selling, but the truth is, I've probably been thinking more about the memories I made with them rather than how good the camera was. That said, I wouldn't mind if companies remade some of my favorites for 2025, with similar bodies crammed with modern sensors and autofocus.

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t seems that landscape and travel photographer Joe Howard, of WaterfallJoe, feels the same way, compiling a list of cameras that he'd like to see remade and what kind of upgrades he'd like to see.

While the two of us diverge quite a bit on the list, (you can watch the video above for his takes), there was one common lineup that I was pleasantly surprised to see that we feel equally enamored with, and that's the Panasonic Lumix GM1/GM5 series cameras. As the owner of three GM1s at various points in my career, I can say that hands down it's been one of my favorite cameras ever (that I always have regretted selling). I've long coveted the updated GM5 that came out a year later with a viewfinder, but they seem impossible to find easily in the U.S., and imported ones on the used market are pricey, reaching $1000 in many cases. As Howard points out many times in his video, spending that kind of money on a digital camera that's more than a decade old isn't the wisest purchase.

I'll expand on the wish list for a GM update: It's key in this lineup of cameras to keep the deck-of-cards size and weight. It was the original selling point for the Micro Four Thirds system—small cameras, big sensors—and big cameras like the OM System OM-1 Mark II seem to fly in the face of that. But one of my biggest gripes was the lack of an articulating screen, something that made shots with strange angles hard to do. Such a small camera is begging to be put in weird places, and this would help. Weather sealing and an updated autofocus would complete the upgrade, and while I didn't have any issues with the image quality out of the 16 MP sensor, an update to the latest and greatest that the system has to offer wouldn't hurt. I'd forgive the lack of a viewfinder if an articulating screen was able to be crammed in there.

To Joe's list I'll add something that isn't quite a camera, but could be a great one if the company so chose to make it one: The Apple iPod. I've broached this idea before. If you took all the space for cell-phone components in the current iPhone bodies and dedicated it to camera-related hardware, it's possible to take a decent imaging device that is a current iPhone and turn it into a great camera. I say that with the caveat that I'm no engineer, but if it happened, it could be the next big thing for Apple.

Take a look at Joe's list and add your own picks for camera remakes to the comments below. Perhaps the camera manufacturers might take a page from the comments and make that remake we've all been wanting.