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In a galvanizing finale to the 2026 Winter Olympics, Team U.S.A. won the gold medal in men’s hockey, its first since 1980. But if you saw Matthew Tkachuk celebrating on the rink in Milan, you would have been forgiven for thinking you were watching the “Miracle on Ice” game 46 years ago.
That’s because the American forward was recording the on-ice celebration not with his cutting-edge smartphone, but with what looked like a Super 8 camera.
The retro device is actually the CS-8, a digital video camera styled to look like the handheld film camera that reached the height of its popularity in the 1970s and ‘80s. It’s made by a company called Camp Snap, which also sells digital point-and-shoots that have the look and feel of disposable cameras. Their mission, according to the brand, is to help people “be screen free and live in the moment.” I can only imagine Tkachuk’s phone was blowing up after his team’s overtime win against Canada on Sunday, so it was probably a relief that he only had to contend with the CS-8’s physical knobs and buttons instead of trying to record video while floods of texts poured in.
Besides being a big spotlight for Camp Snap, this also marks one of the biggest stages yet for the screen-free movement that’s taking hold among younger generations. (At 28 years old, Tkachuk is on the older end of Gen Z.) You could also call it the analog movement: after growing up on the deleterious dopamine drip of social media, younger generations are increasingly seeking out ways to step away from the internet, without disconnecting entirely. Sure, they may still discover music on Spotify, but they’re also building out record collections from the favorite artists they find online; they may be posting reviews of books on TikTok, but they’re often opting to carry around paperbacks rather than e-readers.
Similarly, while the Camp Snap CS-8 isn’t connected to the internet and doesn’t have a playback screen, you can connect it directly to your phone to transfer videos that you can then post on Instagram or TikTok. That’s a good reminder to keep an eye on Tkachuk’s account to see how his footage turned out.
This isn’t the first time Camp Snap’s screen-free cameras have been seen in the hands of a superstar. In the last few months, celebrities like Taylor Swift and Joe Jonas have been photographed with the vintage-looking CS-8. Its appearance at the Olympics, though, alongside tech-infused competition soundtracked by whirring drones and ad breaks touting Google’s AI integration, feels more consequential.
After all, actions speak louder than well-worded ads. When Tkachuk won gold, it’s telling that he didn’t pull out his Google Pixel or Apple iPhone to record the moment. Instead, he grabbed his 1980s-style camera, and then got back to the business of living in the once-in-a-lifetime moment.
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