Casio Camera Division Shutdown: How the QV-10, Exilim, and Tryx Built the Future

Casio exited the digital camera business in 2018 — not after a slow fade, but after a 23-year run defined by three distinct leaps forward. Its first was the QV-10, launched in March 1995: the world’s first consumer-grade digital camera with a rear LCD for previewing and reviewing images. That 250,000-pixel device featured a 1.8-inch screen and cost ¥65,000, nearly $700 at the time.

It sounded ordinary in hindsight, but in 1995 it was revolutionary. Casio sold around 200,000 units in its first year alone. The company wasn’t a camera maker by origin. Founded in 1946 by the Kashio brothers, it began with the ‘Yubiwa pipe’, a finger ring that held cigarettes, then moved into desktop calculators in the 1950s, pocket calculators in the 1970s, and digital watches in 1974.

Its real advantage was miniaturization: low-power integrated circuits, LCD displays, compact keyboards and miniature electronics, all honed in watches and calculators, then applied to imaging. That expertise led directly to its second major contribution: the Exilim line, launched in 2002. Starting with the ultra-thin EX-S1, Casio pitched these as ‘wearable card cameras’, devices small enough to carry constantly, not just when you planned to shoot.