20 Years of digital cameras compared

[Larry Cloetta]

Nice examples, good message, thanks for sharing.
Photography has gotten easier with the advent of ever newer tools, it hasn’t gotten better.
It’s easier now for schlubs like me to make the images I want to make, because the operability window is wider, but there is nothing for sale today that produces a better image than a Fuji S5 Pro (which I still have) when used within its limitations. Or, as good most of the time, imo. Unsurpassed colors and superb dynamic range. And its limitations are not really that limiting for most people for 95% of the images they are ever going to take: 8x12 print sizes or under, or anything viewed on a monitor, outside in normal daylight, or inside with flash.
Yet, I keep buying the very latest, which doesn’t say much for my judgment.

 

[Out to Lunch]

Similar sentiments here: when looking at older files, I, especially like their colors. I still have some of the early digital cameras but they are now in a box under the stairs of a house, in a country I don't live in. When the world re-opens, I'll use them again. This said I have my old Epson R-D1 with me and it renders very nicely in an old-school style as well. Cheers, OtL

 

[Muggins]

Funnily enough just before Christmas I picked up a Nikon Coolpix 330 from a box of junk at work (I even made £10 on ebay by selling its mate, which had a broken battery door!) - I've been using it for taking photos of finds for the local archaeology group as it has really good macro autofocus, and even the RAW files aren't that big.

Coolpix 990 by gray1720, on Flickr

My day-to-day camera is a Nikon D200, model now 15 years old, with a Canon G10 in reserve that isn't much younger.

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

I still like and shoot with my 15 year old Nikon D40 and am always pleased with the images I get out of it. The AF motor in my kit lens is dying, but otherwise the camera is holding up fine. In fact, it feels more solid and better built than the newer entry level Nikons (IMO).

I do sort of wince when I look at JPEGs from the compacts I used at about the same time frame. The only compact I had that was capable of shooting RAW was a Canon G9, and I'm not sure the RAW files from it were that much better than the JPEGS.

Looking back over my archives, some of my favorite photos that I've ever made came from my iPhone 3G with its 2MP camera. Technically great? No, but I had that phone when I first became interested in creative photography, so I shot the living daylights out of it with an uninhibited beginner's eye.

 

[css9450]

Give these old cameras good light and they shine.

It took me awhile to realize, but for some reason I prefer the pics from my D80 and its CCD sensor over my newer cameras and their CMOS sensors, in bright sunny daylight. In dim light, or indoors, the opposite is true. It's all fun though.


A friend of mine uses a D1 and one thing he has found, is it won't work with memory cards larger than a certain size. I can't remember what size he eventually settled on, but basically it amounted to going into the camera store and buying the very smallest CF card they had. Anything bigger wouldn't work.

 

[Range-rover]

Some of those old cameras were pretty amazing. My first digital camera was a Minolta Dimage 7i and it was a macro photography machine. Great times with that camera until the sensor failed; only 5 MP but at the time that was pretty darn good (and still good enough for an 8x10).

I have two of those as well with the anti-shake and they are (were) this
week one the sensor went (everything is orange):bang: and the just stop
working :bang: I really like these camera's but age I guess.

 

[Dogman]

I really like the colors from the Nikon D200. Only problem is that both the ones I have are plagued with dead pixels. But the D2X (12mp CMOS) is pretty close in colors without the dead pixel problem. Great B&W as well from the D2x.

 

[x-ray]

It took me awhile to realize, but for some reason I prefer the pics from my D80 and its CCD sensor over my newer cameras and their CMOS sensors, in bright sunny daylight. In dim light, or indoors, the opposite is true. It's all fun though.


A friend of mine uses a D1 and one thing he has found, is it won't work with memory cards larger than a certain size. I can't remember what size he eventually settled on, but basically it amounted to going into the camera store and buying the very smallest CF card they had. Anything bigger wouldn't work.

When the D1 came out memory was super expensive. I still have a few IBM micro drives I used in it. Originally I bought 250 meg and when the 500 meg came out it was great. Unfortunately they were about $1/meg. If I remember correctly the 500meg was around $500. Crazy!!!

Micro drives were a miniature spinning hard drive disc. They built up a lot of heat when shooting and would eventually fail. They always failed at the worst possible time causing you to lose all your data.

 

[Muggins]

One from my D200 - reasonable crop (probably about 1/3 of the frame) with an AI-S 400mm lens. I think it'll pass. especially with a bit of a tweak to the saturation. I always shoot cricket in sunshine with at least a stop of underexposure to stop the whites burning out, and it can lead to things looking a bit pasty.

_DSC0034 by gray1720, on Flickr

 

[Muggins]

...and another, again a crop, from the Coolpix. See what I mean about the macro?

DSCN0116 by gray1720, on Flickr

 

[Darthfeeble]

From the roaring great 3mp sensor of the Sony Mavica CD taken about 2003

DSC00881.jpg by Steve Gumbiner, on Flickr

 

[PKR]

Kodak SLRn CMOS circa 2004

 

[KM-25]

My first digital camera was the Nikon NC2000 in 1994, 1.3MP, super cropped sensor and used little hard drives that always got corrupted. If the battery went dead, you could not swap it out for a fresh one, you had to plug the camera into a charger using an outlet. I did manage to get decent images out of it including this one of the Apollo 13 space capsule that ran on the cover of the New York Times.

Hard to believe I have been using digital for 27 years, might be why I will never stop using film....digital is old technology to me...🙂

 

[x-ray]

I remember the early Kodak digital cameras. A good friend that was chief photographer with the news paper brought one of the Nikon AP cameras to my studio one afternoon. We spent an entire afternoon testing it with daylight, tungsten, studio strobes and Nikon hand held strobes and we didn’t get a single decent image out of it.

I wish I had some of the files from a 4x5 scanning back. I don’t remember the make but the company sold out to Better Light. It took about 20 minutes to make an exposure and when it worked it made stunning files. When it worked was the biggest issue.

 

[PKR]

Hi X-Ray. I too am retired now. A couple from work. SLRn and Fuji S5 pro.

The second wouldn't load. I'll try on another post.

 

[x-ray]

DJI Drone

DJI Drone

I finally had a little time to pull together some more samples from the 1st gen Digital Rebel, Canon 1D, Canon G10, DJI drone and a few film scans.

All files processed from raw

 

[x-ray]

1D Canon

1D Canon

Here are a few images from the Canon 1D. The 1D was unusual in that it had a 1.3x size CCD sensor and was a little over 5mp. It was a unique camera in that it would sync with strobes at 1/500th.

 

[x-ray]

G10

G10

Next is the Canon G10. I still have it and use it from time to time. It was a CCD camera with built in zoom from 6-30.5mm. It shoots in raw and makes some nice images. It also attempts to do video but is lacking in quality.

 

[x-ray]

1st gen Canon digital rebel

1st gen Canon digital rebel

Next lets look at a few images from the 1st generation digital rebel and kit lens.

 

[David Hughes]

Should I know what CMOS and CCD are? It's not bothered me so far.

OTOH, I do agree about old cameras; my E-1 is doing its job still.

Regards, David