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Digital Cameras: A Brief History

By eflarah
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    History of the Digital Camera

  • First Digital Camera

    First Digital Camera
    The first digital camera was designed by Kodak and took 23 seconds to create a 100 x 100 pixel image that was recorded onto a cassette tape. These images could then only be viewed by hooking up a special device to a television.

  • Commercial Digital Cameras

    Commercial Digital Cameras
    Released in 1989 the Fujix DS-1P was the world's first commercial digital camera. It wrote digital files (your pictures) to memory cards, but was only available in Japan for a brief time. The Dycam sold during 1990 was the first one available in the United States.

  • Digital Options w/ 35mm Bodies

    Digital Options w/ 35mm Bodies
    Starting in 1991, Kodak produced camera systems that paired Nikon bodies with Kodak digital sensors in place of film. The original DCS cost $20,000 and required a tethered hard-disk system. Their second DCS was releases in 1992, and both of these had about a 1.3 MP resolution.

  • First Color Picture Digital Cameras

    First Color Picture Digital Cameras
    1. Apple QuickTake 100 (1994). Resolution: 640 by 480 pixels (0.3MP).
    2. Kodak DC40 (1995). Resolution: 756 by 504 pixels (0.38MP). These early digital cameras developed by Kodak, were based on the same underlying technology. They captured images in 24-bit color.

  • LCD Show Your Pictures for the First TIme

    LCD Show Your Pictures for the First TIme
    1. Casio QV-10 (1995). Resolution: 320 by 240 pixels (0.07MP).
    2. Kodak DC25 (1996). Resolution: 493 x 373 pixels (0.18MP). The Casio QV-10 was the first consumer digital camera to include a built-in LCD screen. The Kodak DC25 was the first to use Compact Flash media for storage.

  • New Features and Ideas

    New Features and Ideas
    1. Olympus Deltis VC-1100 (1994). Resolution: 768 by 576 pixels (0.44MP).
    2. Nikon Coolpix 100 (1996). Resolution: 512 by 480 (0.24MP).
    3. Ricoh RDC1 (1995). Resolution: 768 by 576 (0.44MP). The Olympus Deltis VC-1100 incorporated a modem for transmission of photos over regular phone lines. The Nikon Coolpix plugged into a laptop's PC Card slot to transfer pictures. The Ricoh RDC1 was the first digital still camera to record video.

  • Camera Phone's First Picture

    Camera Phone's First Picture
    In 1997, inventor Philippe Kahn shared the first ever image taken by a cameraphone. An experimental prototype, Kahn sent an image of his newborn child via cellular radio to more than 2000 friends and family members.This was the spark that started it all - soon afterwards, Nokia, Sharp and Sony Ericsson would all launch camera phones.

  • Large in the Late '90s

    Large in the Late '90s
    These three cameras were typical of mid-upper-range consumer digital models in the late 1990s. None of them produced pictures above 2 MP quality.

  • Cameras for Kids

    Cameras for Kids
    These were two of the first "toy" digital cameras on the market. They could store only six photos, but retailed for under $100.

  • SLRs Enter the Market

    SLRs Enter the Market
    1. Nikon D1 (1999).
    2. Canon EOS D30 (2000) These two models were the first fully integrated digital single-lens reflex cameras (commonaly called SLRs). They both were notable also for using lenses from their equivalent systems in the 35mm film world. This Canon was the first model to have above 3 MP quality with 3.11.

  • Canon EOS Reble d300

    Canon EOS Reble d300
    The Canon D300 was the first digital SLR under $1000. This began to make it affordable for more developing photographers.

  • Social Media Changes Photography

    Social Media Changes Photography
    Both Flickr and Facebook launched in 2004, forever changing the way we share and view our pictures.

  • Kodak Stops Producing Digital Cameras

    Kodak Stops Producing Digital Cameras
    It seems strange that things would come full circle, but the inventor of the digital camera would end up going bust because of it.
    In 2012, Kodak's digital camera and pocket camera business would close as part of a wider plan for the company to emerge from bankruptcy - which it did in September 2013.

  • Digital Dominance

    Digital Dominance
    As of today, experts predict that as many as 380 billion photographs are taken each year.That number has been steadily rising as the world gradually saturates with digital cameras.
    Facebook, Flickr and Instagram's combined image library now outweighs that of the Library of Congress, or virtually any other image store in the world.
    The rise of the digital camera has made ure that just about every important moment in a person's life, no matter how small, will now be kept stored forever - provided,