Episode 82: The Coolest Digital Cameras

When you collect vintage film cameras, if they don’t work, just send it out for a CLA and some technician will take it apart, clean it up, lube what needs lubing, calibrate the shutter and it is ready to go, good as new! How boring! If the simplicity of CLAing a film camera is not enough of a challenge for you, perhaps you should consider collecting vintage digital cameras. Incompatible memory cards, legacy file systems, unsupported USB cables, and batteries which no longer hold a charge are all the rage!

Although the era of digital cameras barely exceeds three decades, the earliest days of digital saw a tremendous amount of innovation and strange designs because camera makers were still trying to figure out what and how a digital camera should look and work like.

In this episode, the Camerosity crew (minus Anthony) go over this early innovative era of digital camera design and pick out some of the coolest cameras of the era. Many of these cameras have early sensors which do not stand up to the quality of modern designs, but that’s not why we collect them,

Joining Paul, Theo, and Mike are returning callers AJ Gentile, Larry Effler, Mark Faulkner, Miles Libak, Pat Casey, Stephen Strangways, and Will Pinkham and we cover a great deal of history regarding the earliest and most important digital cameras like the Kodak DCS-100, Nikon E2Ns, and Minolta RD-175. We declare two cameras from the late 1990s to be historically significant moments in camera design, on par with that of the Leica and Nikon F.

Stephen Strangways shares with us his wide depth of knowledge about camera sensors. We discuss the differences between CCD and CMOS sensors, why companies made the switch between the two, motivations of Live View, and why DSLRs eventually gave way to digital mirrorless cameras.

We discuss the limitations of early CCD sensors, what are hot mirror filters, why we think Nikon missed the mark on mirrorless, plus we cover a great deal of cool digital cameras, some of which have features cameras today don’t have, like the Sony Cybershot DSC-F828, Olympus E-100 RS, Panasonic GF1, and the Ricoh G900.

In addition, Mike shares his large collection of 17 Pentax Q-series cameras, plus a very strange “camera coffin”, a wooden Nikon rangefinder camera that has the guts of a Sony alpha mirrorless inside.

As it is officially the holiday season and each of our schedules has gotten increasingly complicated, we do not yet know when the next show will be, or what we will discuss. Rest assured, that once we know, you’ll know. Be sure to follow us on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, our new BlueSky page, and right here on mikeeckman.com.

In This Episode

What Exactly is ‘Vintage Digital’? / Differences Between Still Video and Digital Cameras
Kodak Had the Most to Lose with Digital But Pioneered it Anyway
Apple Quicktake 100 / The Kodak DCS-100 Was Used in the Gulf War
Did Kodak’s Involvement in APS Impact Their Role in Developing Digital Cameras?
Early CCD Sensors Were Extremely Difficult to Make, Resulting in Smaller Sensors
The Sony Digital Mavica Was the Beginning of the End for Polaroid
The Digital Mavica Was Also the Introduction of Digital to Many People
Floppy Discs Gave Way to PCMCIA Cards and Eventually Flash Cards
So Many Different Formats, MemoryStick, SmartMedia 3v and 5v, Compact Flash, etc
Minolta RD-175 DSLR / Early Digitals Didn’t Write JPGs / Converting Extinct Formats
Sony Cybershot DSC-F828 / Sony’s Night Shot Feature and How it Worked / Digital IR Photography
Early Digital Cameras Had Weak IR Filtration, Throwing a Color Cast on Images / Hot Mirror Filters
Why Did Digital Cameras Switch from CCD to CMOS Sensors? / Live View and Video Recording
Problems with Sony Sensors / Canon and Fuji FinePix Pro SLRs / Leica M9 Sensor Problems
Early Live View Sensors Would Overheat / Externally Cooling Camera Sensors
What Drives the Popularity of CCD Sensors Today?
Larry and Paul Love the Canon G-Series / Canon Color Science / Olympus E-100 RS
Sigma Foveon Sensors / Foveon Merrills and Quattro Cameras
The Nikon D1 Was the Watershed Moment for DSLRs / Nikon E2Ns
Canon Did Well with the Digital Rebel and 18-55mm Kit Lens
Kodak DCS Pro SLR/14 Was the First Full Frame DSLR In a Nikon Body and Mount
Polaroid Polachrome Instant Slide Films
The Switch from DSLR to Mirrorless / Panasonic GF1 / Sony SLT Cameras
Nikon One and Pentax Q-Series Mirrorless Cameras / Nikon Missed the Mark On Mirrorless
“No one will ever shoot the Superbowl with a smartphone”…or Will They?
Digital Mirrorless Cameras Generally Have Poorer Battery Life Compared to DSLRs
Most Camera Makers Never Made a Profit off Making Digital Cameras
In February 1986 Herbert Keppler Made Several Predictions About Electronic Cameras
Leica M11 / Pentax W90 / Canon Digital Rebel / Epson R-D1 / Pentax 645 Digital / Ricoh G900
Kurt’s Strange Nikon Rangefinder Wooden Sony Digital Camera / Hasselblad Lunar and Stellar Digicams

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

The Camerosity Podcast is now on BlueSky @camerosity.bsky.social. This modern, and clean replacement for Twitter is a nice alternative to cluttered social networks out there. Follow us there for show announcements and other content.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Keppler’s Vault 86: Electronic Still Photography – https://mikeeckman.com/2021/03/kepplers-vault-86-electronic-still-photography/

Theo Panagopoulos – https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt – https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris – https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue – https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

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