Introducing the Kodak DCS-100, a professional-level digital camera complete with 1.3 megapixel sensor, 200 megabyte internal hard drive and SCSI connector - a steal at just $13,000.

You’re not reading that wrong. The year was 1991, and that Kodak camera started the digital revolution, and, as you’ll see, it still was a pretty good camera for a long time. Trust me, when you’re looking at the capabilities and cost of these ancient digital cameras, it’ll make you appreciate your lowly - but modern - Powershot pretty quickly.

Kodak DCS-100

Fuji had manufactured the first, true digital still camera, but it never made it’s way over to the U.S, making the Kodak DCS-100 was the first digital camera available to American consumers. The DCS-100 wasn’t even technically a full digital camera - it was simply a digital camera back that could attach to the Nikon F3 film SLR. Images were taken in color or black and white and downloaded immediately to the attached Digital Storage Unit - that lovely box-like apparatus you see in the picture above. There, it could be previewed on the included 4-inch black-and-white monitor while it saved to the unit’s internal, 200-megabyte hard drive. The DSU could attach to a computer via an SCSI cord, and Adobe Photoshop could even read the files via a TWAIN plugin.

This behemoth was marketed mainly to photojournalists, as Kodak hoped the device would decrease the time it took press agencies to get photos from the field to the newsroom. Obviously, it never really caught on with the home market.

The cost of the DCS-100 today, after accounting for inflation? Somewhere in the neighborhood of a cool $21,000.

Apple Quicktake 100

After the DCS-100, camera technology became somewhat stagnant. Camera manufacturers moved away from the concept of a digital storage unit, electing instead to have a hard drive inside the camera backing itself. While this made the camera a lot more portable, photographers had to get to a computer to preview their results.

Digital photography remained the privilege of the photojournalism world until 1994 and the introduction of the Apple Quicktake. It made even the DCS-100 look advanced by comparison. The Apple Quicktake 100 looked like a pair of binoculars, weighed a full pound, and was capable of storing a whopping eight photos at 640×480 resolution or 32 photos at 320×240 resolution. Still, the camera was revolutionary. It was the first that could connect to a home PC by a serial cable.

The cost? Nearly than $800 dollars at the time.

Casio QV-10

Images by Phil Wherry

The Casio QV-10 is the camera that earns the infamy of being the camera that started the trend of people holding their camera out in front of their face to take a photo. Why? Because it had the first LCD preview screen, and not a whole lot else.

The camera had a fixed lens and 2 megabytes of internal memory, enough to store nearly 80 images. That should tell you something about the pictures looked - here’s a sample in all its full-resolution glory:

Images by Phil Wherry

The Casio QV-10 also had a nasty habit of breaking. If the power ran out while the flash memory was in use, the camera would shut down and needed to be sent in to the manufacturer to be repaired. Despite this, the camera was quite popular, possibly because it was (relatively) more affordable, entering the market in 1996 at $650.

Kodak DC25

The other camera that helped to usher in modern digital technology was the Kodak DC25, the first camera to use CompactFlash memory. Here’s an excerpt from a 1996 press release announcing the camera and the CompactFlash technology:

“People can use the CompactFlash cards to store pictures taken with any PC card, ATA (AT Attachment) compatible digital camera. Consumers also can store on a CF card edited pictures and custom creations generated on a computer. Soon they will be able to take the card to any retail location offering Kodak Image MagicTM Picture Maker workstations. At those locations, users will be able to insert the CompactFlash cards into workstations to create instant digital prints.”

The camera accepted cards in 2, 4, 10 or 15MB megabyte capacity, expanding the DC25’s internal memory of two megabytes. The price of the CompactFlash cards started at $100, while the camera itself cost nearly $500.

Digital Gains Acceptance

It wasn’t until 1999 and the introduction of the Nikon D1 that digital photography really entered the modern era. With the D1, digital photography began to be accepted as a true substitute for film among professional photographers, an attitude that drifted down into the consumer market shortly thereafter. Still, it took until the Canon Digital Rebel 300D in 2003 for digital-SLRs to move below a price point of $1000.

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