NikonWeb.com

Where would we be without Google?

I see a version of this photo has been added to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_DCS_100, but I found it here http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/88352-the-history-of-digital-photography/3

Interesting to see photo taken on 2009-10-24 - Perhaps a show? Note different finger grip to DCS 100, vertical arrangement on DSU, smaller screen, trap door below keypad allowing something to be plugged in (about the shape of a PCMCIA HDD...)

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DCS serial no. survey
EOS-1D Mk I & II, EOS*DCS-3 & 5, DCS, DCS-200ci, 420, 460, D1, D1H & X, D2H, E2, F, F2, F3, F4, RD-175, EF 50mm f/1.0, Audi S2, Porsche 911, GSX-R1000 K9

You'll find more info (and a better photo) on the Professional Camera Back from 1990 in the Kodak DCS history:

http://www.nikonweb.com/files/DCS_Story.pdf (3.9 MB PDF)



Jarle

Hi,

I wonder if anyone has a shot of the earlier version on the Canon F1 body?

Maybe not, as that was a sales tool they used in the late 1980's to peddle their industrial manufacturing line vision systems. I don't think they ever produced that for sale as an actual digital camera.

Probably doesn't matter, either as that looked a lot like the Nikon F3 based one they did sell. But, this woul dbe the place to have such a shot if one exists.

Later!

Stan

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Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

I think I've found an image of the CCD/board, (I can't remember where though...)


Note uncovered PCB, like the one in photo on this page http://www.digicamhistory.com/1990.html (the listing just above the DCS-100 entry, which interestingly also infers that it was a still video camera.)

As opposed to covered up version in DCS-100


Anyone got an 'uncovered' DCS PCB to unprove this? My 2 are covered.

Regards,
JR

_________________
DCS serial no. survey
EOS-1D Mk I & II, EOS*DCS-3 & 5, DCS, DCS-200ci, 420, 460, D1, D1H & X, D2H, E2, F, F2, F3, F4, RD-175, EF 50mm f/1.0, Audi S2, Porsche 911, GSX-R1000 K9

According to the Wikipedia description, the photo was taken at "Eastman House, Rochester, NY".

I planned to visit Rochester when I was in NYC a while ago, until I found it was a 5,5 hour drive - almost as long as the flight across the Atlantic. Fuggedaboudit!

Jarle

Notice how all the film-advance sprockets and takeup spool are still in situ in the body! That's how people always pictured how a 35mm "digital back" would look. Literally, an electronic something which would clip-on in place of the film pressure-plate and back door; you would be able to revert to film at any time. How things have turned out differently.

Although, the concept did succeed with medium-format cameras, which were always more modular; I use both film backs and a Kodak DCS 645M digital back with my Mamiya 645AFD.

Ray

BTW, JR, I just added my DCS645M and DCS720x to your DCS serial no. survey page. Mine seems to be the earliest (to date) of the listed Mamiya-mount DCS645 backs, and in the mid-range of the DCS720x cameras.

Ray

I'm reminded of "silicon film", which was a parallel idea - the concept was that the electronics would fit into a case the size of a film cartridge, which would go into the take-up spool, with the sensor embedded in a projection as flat as film:
http://cultureandcommunication.org/dead ... licon_Film

Lots of controversy as to whether it existed or not - and most the cameras it worked with had already been turned into digital SLRs, including the F3 above. It always seemed like the kind of thing that would only make sense if it was really cheap, or if digital SLRs remained at five-figure Kodak DCS price levels, neither of which seemed likely in 2001. Still, I always wondered if Kodak thought of marketing DCS 420, 460, EOS DCS base units separately, to people who already had a Nikon F90 or an EOS 1.

Also, David Prowse' autobiography is called "Straight from the Force's Mouth", which has nothing to do with digital cameras but is unexpectedly witty.

This is the prototype/demonstrator for the DCS(100). We showed it at Photokina 1990. The slot under the keypad is for the battery - this has the same built-in hard drive as the DCS. We turned it all sideways to use a larger image LCD. Otherwise, it's almost identical to the production DCS. I think we made two of these units. One of them was still at Kodak the last time I checked.

The winder is the one from the Hawkeye II Tethered camera that the DCS evolved from. The grip was up-styled for the DCS, but it lost the nice rubber finger pad under the button that you see in this photo.