We are Removing the Editor’s Choice Award for Echolens

Of any of the large photography publications, we’ve been one of the ones to really embrace the digicam trend and the birth of all these new point and shoot cameras. When we reviewed the camera, we gave it an Editor’s Choice award. We also named it one of the best screenless digital cameras of 2025, and we updated our review when new features came out. Thanks to a tip from reader Ken Piros and conversations with folks inside the industry, we’ve been reevaluating this camera. And today, we’re announcing the removal of the Editor’s Choice Award.

Why You Should Question the EchoLens

As of July 2026, the Phoblographer is removing its Editor’s Choice award of the Echolens. This is a practice we’ve done before in the past once more information has come in. If you’ve been a reader of ours for a while, you’ll know a few things to be true. First off, we’re not always one of the first to do reviews of a product. That’s because bigger brands often play favorites and give products to people they like and who they know will align with their marketing.

Second, Phoblographer has always made declarations in our reviews and products that we get to keep, ones we need to send back, etc. At least we do this with products from bigger manufacturers. I got to keep the Echolens — and that’s because of the next big fact.

The Phoblographer is also one of the only publications that actively does updates to our reviews after new firmware, new findings, etc. We even go back and retest products after a long time.

This practice makes us a whole lot more honest. I could’ve easily ignored this product and kept the Editor’s Choice award, but it wouldn’t be truthful to anyone. And as the only Editor in Chief of the large photography publications who actually received a journalism degree, I hold ourselves to higher standards than my high-functioning blind self allows me to.

With this said, back in early June, reader Ken Piros said that he bought the camera based off of our review, and then stated that it was a piece of junk. Specifically the email read, “Bought the Echolens based on your review, after one month it stopped working,” he stated. “Took several images, clock counter still showed 54 of 54 shots. Lost all images. Sent email to Echolens about the issue, no response. Waste of money. Would not recommend  this camera. 0 stars.”

I take emails like this pretty seriously, and I kept it in the back of my mind while also relaying to Ken that this wasn’t my experience.

Then one day, I pulled the camera out of one of my camera bags, booted it up, and started shooting. It worked. So I decided that I wanted to change the film. After starting the app, I noticed that little to nothing had changed since my Februray 2026 review update. This seemed a little odd.

So I deepened my investigation and went to Echolens’s Kickstarter page, where folks are really not happy. Apparently folks haven’t gotten their rewards, the app hasn’t gotten an update, and there are various other issues.

So I emailed Echolens myself to see what’s been going on. But their email address isn’t working. On top of that, their website is selling the Echolens at a discount.

Not cool, not at all.

All of this is more than enough to make us remove the Editor’s Choice award. But there was one other thing. One of the brand’s competitors, whom the Phoblographer still has a very good relationship with, told us that the creators of the Echolens allegedly came into their offices really excited about the products they were making. Later on, those same Echolens creators essentially took the brand’s ideas, and made them into their own camera.

Look, we can all accuse the Chinese brands and the Japanese brands for doing the same, exact thing. Everyone didn’t just magically get AI in their cameras.

Copying others in this industry doesn’t help the industry. It’s an act of corporate greed and capitalistic endeavors — and in the journalism world, I can and have easily accused other publications of doing this same thing.

So due to a lack of updates, failed communications, problems with initial Kickstarter backers, faulty products, and the alleged accusations of copying, we are removing the Editor’s Choice award from the Echolens.

Don’t buy it.