Who has the oldest digital camera on this forum?

[markjwyatt]

For some reason I suspect these are not going to be as celebrated as the first Leica or the first rollfilm camera (for instance). I wonder if there will be forums of some sort for people who use and collect first generation digital cameras? I suspect it will not be as popular as "analog" forums today. For instance I still have an IBM PC Jr. in a box in the garage. No one clamors to own one that I can see.

 

[jsrockit]

Ok, a lot of cool info here! But who still has one of the pre QuickTake cameras ?

 

[Doug]

Ok, 1996. Kodak DC50 Zoom, introduced Jan 1996 and I bought one in March 1996, $990. It was intended to document the condition of rental units as renters vacated, but I did not use it. My wife adopted the orphan camera a couple of years later. I eventually used a Canon G3 for this purpose.

Anyway, the DC50 (made by Chinon) was fairly advanced for its time, with a 0.38 Mpx CCD sensor (756x508) and a 3x zoom (38-114mm equivalent). It had some internal storage but also wrote to PCMCIA cards.

 

[Archiver]

A few years ago, I was given a Casio QV 100 from 1996. It's a 0.36mp camera with 4MB internal memory. The lens module on the end can rotate, a precursor to the flippy screens of today. It's earlier ancestor, the QV 10, was advertised in US Cavalry catalogues in 1996.

https://www.digitalkameramuseum.de/en/cameras/item/casio-qv-100

Not my image:

CASIO QV-100 by saramode さらもで, on Flickr

 

[jsrockit]

I wanted that Casio so bad... but my first was the Agfa ePhoto 307 because it was the cheapest available.

 

[jarski]

... For instance I still have an IBM PC Jr. in a box in the garage. No one clamors to own one that I can see.

retro computing of all kinds and ages is raising in popularity. people who were in their teens and grew up with 8bit computers are middle aged now. old classics like Commodore 64 is even re-made, restoration and retro blighting scene is active, new software (especially games) are done for these old machines, events are organised and some programmers such as Amiga's Dave Haynie are becoming small celebrities.

 

[Dwig]

I own two apple 1994 Quicktake 100 cameras.
You need an apple computer and a Quicktake application. I have a laptop from the era in order to get the images. I don't believe JPG was standardized yet at that time to see the photos ...

The need for dedicated software to download images from many of the cameras of this era had nothing to due with JPG, TIFF, ... . Instead, it was because of the very limited processing power of the camera's internal processor.


All digital cameras have always only shot "RAW", that's the nature of digital sensors. Cameras that present the user with some other format (JPEG, TIFF, ...) are converting the raw sensor data internally. That requires decent processing power, beyond what was practical to provide in the camera itself at the time. Instead, the dedicated download software provided the heavy lifting by downloading the RAW from the camera's storage and then doing the conversion.

 

[Mackinaw]

Not even sure this is a digital camera. I picked up late 80's. The battery is dead, but if I use the AC adaptor, it works.

Jim B.

 

[wjlapier]

Sony DSC-S85 from 2001 but I bought it in 2002 and took my first digital photos that summer in Montana. I even have some video taken with it though they basically suck. Still images are excellent up to Carl Zeiss standards.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I don't know how exactly old it is:

Last time I checked in 2018.

 

[markjwyatt]

retro computing of all kinds and ages is raising in popularity. people who were in their teens and grew up with 8bit computers are middle aged now. old classics like Commodore 64 is even re-made, restoration and retro blighting scene is active, new software (especially games) are done for these old machines, events are organised and some programmers such as Amiga's Dave Haynie are becoming small celebrities.

Interesting. I did not know that. Thanks.

 

[Michael Markey]

A 6mp Panasonic DMC - FX3 bought in 2006 .
Still working well .

 

[telenous]

I thought I 'd make a splash with my Canon EOS 40D but I see we have some digital archaeologists here.

.

 

[wintoid]

I took my first digital camera, an Epson, to my Dad's wedding in (I think) 1997. The priest was taking a few snaps for us, as it was a small affair. I handed him my camera and he took one. He went to take a second shot, and realised he had NO IDEA how to wind the camera on. So he turned the camera over to try to work it out...

PIC00010 by wintoid entity, on Flickr

 

[telenous]

So, that's what divine intervention looks like.

.

 

[David Hughes]

Interesting. I did not know that. Thanks.

Hi,

A long, long time ago my Saturday job involved repairing things for the family firm. A lot of customers had things that they'd searched for once they retired and had the time and money.

Mostly what they wanted checked and sorted out was what they wanted when they were 16 or so and could not afford or were denied by their parents. And now - at long last - they had one and wanted to play with it. You'd be surprised how many of them were priests and/or doctors.

Regards, David

 

[jsrockit]

Not even sure this is a digital camera. I picked up late 80's. The battery is dead, but if I use the AC adaptor, it works.

Jim B.

Hmmm...is this our winner so far?