Comments on: An Illustrated History of Digital Cameras

An Illustrated History of Digital Cameras

carter — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:24:51 -0800

Mainly looks at consumer digicams, but includes a host of ancestors - obscuras, pinholes, consumer film and SLRs, electronic video cameras, etc.

By: fiercecupcake

fiercecupcake — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:28:00 -0800

Show me the good parts, please.

By: carter

carter — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:40:29 -0800

Depends what you mean by good, but you could start in the mid 1980s with early PCs and Electronic Newsgathering. Or jump forward to the Apple Quick Take, which came out in 1994.

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:46:34 -0800

That was pretty neat. I fund the old Fujifilm point-and-click that I used to teach my students basic photography back in 1999. The old Sony FD Mavica is there, too. It seemed so cutting-edge at the time.

By: aspo

aspo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:48:30 -0800

I don't think digital means what this person thinks it means.

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:49:50 -0800

This is awesome! The flash was invented for taking photos in those old timey diving suits! And everyone had facial hair! !

By: pineapple

pineapple — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:50:47 -0800

93% say redesign.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:07:13 -0800

My first digital camera is here. Well, almost. I had the Ricoh RDC-300Z, which is just like the 300, except with a 3x optical zoom. 640x480 maximum resolution. What is that, less than half a megapixel? That camera was so awesome. It would macro focus to less than 0.5 cm, which was effectively right up inside the little lens shroud. Here's a picture I took demonstrating the Macro function. I still can't take true macro shots like that with any of my other digitals. (Yeah, I followed that fly around for about an hour or two just to get that one shot.) Wow, has it really been 10 years since I bought it? 11? Holy crap. It finally died not too long ago on a trip to Seattle, thanks to the stupidity of beer and going down a slide the wrong way - IE, climbing the slide and sliding down the stairs. The camera got hung up in the belt pouch I kept it in, smashing it to bits. I still have the carcass and "will get around to reassembling it, eventually".

By: JJ86

JJ86 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:16:08 -0800

So, digital cameras include film and video now? Based on that I was shooting digital way back in 1972.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:24:36 -0800

Also, I now seem to be collecting older Nikon digital cameras, particularly the CoolPix series. Do you have an old CoolPix sitting around collecting dust? Any CoolPix - the older the better. I can give it a good home.

By: (parenthetic me)

(parenthetic me) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:25:47 -0800

Related and also enjoyable: A look back at the NC2000. (previously)

By: carter

carter — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:34:44 -0800

The CoolPix swiveling body is a neat design. I have a swiveler, a Contax SL 300R T* it's very functional. It looks like the CoolPix have changed a lot from the really early ones; it would be nice to have a display case of them.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:37:23 -0800

Mine's on there, too, though, oddly, with a different name brand and a different case color. Mine's called the Magicimage 420. Really. It was quite small, which was a huge bonus, but it had no display, no zoom, and that 640x480 resolution. I still use the case with my newer camera.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:42:08 -0800

It doesn't include the Game Boy Camera.

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:52:42 -0800

I remember when the QuickTake launched. Big clunky plastic housing and serial cable connectivity. The newspaper I was working for at the time bought one in hopes of shooting car photos for use in CMYK advertisements, just wasn't to be. How far we've come.

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:56:37 -0800

It doesn't include the Game Boy Camera. Yes it does (scroll down)

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:57:46 -0800

Silly me, I didn't look under "N."

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:07:39 -0800

Faint of Butt, the Game Boy Camera is right below the link carter just posted. It looks like the CoolPix have changed a lot from the really early ones; it would be nice to have a display case of them. Yeah, they've sort of settled on a workable "point and shoot" design for the CoolPix series. Right-hand grip, five-way control pad on the back, under the thumb. Trigger with mode selector ring up top, zoom and image controls on the back above the control pad. This design has evolved a bit with the newer, thinner, and more square-shaped CoolPix cameras, but for a long time that "battery" grip with control arrangement was what made a CoolPix a CoolPix. They're solid cameras. I still use my CoolPix 700 when I want the colors just right, and I can sacrifice a bit of resolution. Like all Nikons film and digital, the metering and controls are "funky" - often too smart for their own good, but Nikon always makes up for it with quality optics, great sensors and extreme durability. Eventually I'm hoping someone in my friends and family will hand-me-down one of their awesome Nikon dSLR bodies and I'll have a decent collection of Nikon history. (I currently have a Nikon FE-2 35mm SLR (rare black-body model), and the CoolPix 700, an 800 and an 885.)

By: KevinSkomsvold

KevinSkomsvold — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:13:49 -0800

Cool link! Sad to think that 5-10 years from now, my Nikon D50 will be gathering dust in a closet somewhere.

By: quin

quin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:15:47 -0800

I have one of those swivel body CoolPix, carter. They really are great cameras. It doesn't get nearly as much use since we upgraded to a DSLR, but even after all these years, it still is able to show off it's chops if needed. But yeah, I do have to take some issues with Camera Obscura from 1490 being on a digital photography page. Just call it 'photography'; we'll still understand.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:22:07 -0800

Cool link! Sad to think that 5-10 years from now, my Nikon D50 will be gathering dust in a closet somewhere. Y'know, whenever you're done with it I have a handy tutorial on sensor-cleaning and some lenses that'll fit it. ;)

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:18:59 -0800

I love the internet. (parenthetic me) has offered to send me a CoolPix 990 to add to my home for wayward Nikons. Thanks!

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:53:36 -0800

I liked the part with the cameras.

By: wiinga

wiinga — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:19:47 -0800

I still have photo files in the .pxn format from an old Logitech Pictureman. The software never made the transition from 16-bit Windows 3.1 to Win95. Anybody have any ideas to open those pictures?

By: pixxie

pixxie — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:28:23 -0800

Did anyone ever use a digital camera with a floppy disk as storage? They were easy to use and their shapes resembled an old polaroid camera. Also, what about those "sticker" polaroid cameras that were introduced in the early 2000's? They were awful! The stickers were very $$$$ and they didn't adhere very well.

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:29:38 -0800

Woo, my Kodak DC20 is on there! I think it held eight 640x480 images on its on-board memory. I still have the receipt, too, and every once in a while, I pull it out of a drawer and say to whoever is around, "god DAMN, this receipt is 12 years old!"

By: jinjo

jinjo — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:57:21 -0800

I have a Coolpix SQ that's dented in one spot and says SYSTEM ERROR as soon as it turns on. Want?