They say the best camera is the one you have with you. For most, that means the cameras they have bolted onto their smartphones.

But that is not true for everyone — especially the younger crowd. To a growing number of people, the answer is actually something else: pocket-size digital cameras, not unlike the ones smartphones nearly drove extinct years ago.

In fact, these compact digital cameras (or “digicams”) seem to be having a bit of a moment. The first half of this year saw shipments of cameras with built-in lenses tiptoe over a million units, according to data from the Camera & Imaging Products Association, a trade group that counts companies such as Sony, Canon, Nikon and Fujifilm as members. That is a drop in the bucket compared with, say, smartphone shipments in the hundreds of mi

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