Some oldies

[kodaker]

Here are a couple of oldies, relatively. A couple of the first consumer digital cameras by each company, from way back in 1995. Both were 1/3 megapixels and neither had a display nor removable storage, but they were available to the average consumer, as long as you could afford a $1000 camera. The Kodak connected to your computer via a serial port and the Nikon was inserted into a PCMCIA slot to transfer pictures. The Kodak still seems to take pictures, but requires a special serial cable which I don't have. The Nikon no longer works.
I have been slowly collecting old digital cameras. mostly at garage sales, etc and have about 90 different models now, but these are my oldest.

[lloydy]

I help a few local charity shops by sorting out donated cameras and equipment, then either I sell the good stuff for them at decent prices or they put it in the shop. And two types of camera we just can't sell? old 35mm compacts and old digitals.
I've shifted a few 35mm compacts to the Lomo lovers, and some of the better compacts - mainly the AF ones - I've still got here. The rest will be binned shortly. But the few digitals are still working and I'm loathed to throw them in the bin. I think there's a Canon Sureshot S40 4mp, Fuji Finepix 2300 2.1mp and a Vivitar Vivicam 3750 3mp left.

[pompiere]

It's hard to believe that they sold for hundereds, if not thousands, of dollars just a few years ago. For most people's email and internet posting, those older cameras have plenty of resolution. They can post a picture without having to resize it. I have a couple 2 Megapixel cameras to play around with. Sometimes finding a compatable memory card is the hardest part. Propriatary batteries can set you back too, so I try to stay with AAs.

[lloydy]

I know, these are ideal for banging pictures out for selling stuff on ebay or other low res' stuff like that, but I can't give them away.
The Canon S40 was a hugely expensive camera back in the day, and a very good, well spec'd camera, but the charger is missing. I can buy one on ebay for a few pounds. But it's hardly worth the bother. Even for me to keep it's pointless, like so many others I already have my first digital camera ( Canon G3 ) which still works perfectly.
I sent 3 perfectly good Olympus digitals to a guy in Germany for his kids to play with. And barely made £10 for the charity after postage. But it's better than throwing them in the bin.

[Stephen]

There are lots of cheaper lower resolution cameras on Ebay, some are there like the Fuji finepix 4900/6900 because they use the older small capacity memory cards, but are still decent super zooms. Unless very large prints are done, they produce shots exactly the same as more modern cameras with 10/14 Mp. A 6900 went for £20 today on Ebay.
Stephen.

[Doug T.]

Hi All!

I've taken to collecting old digitals.
I look more for odd shapes and colors , the Olympus Verve or some of the Polaroids for example. Kodak also made some real different looking digitals.
I'm still looking for a Canon Xapshot

As far as using them, I love my FinePix S5200 It's "only" a 5.1 megapixel camera, but I've gotten great shots with it; I never print anything larger than 8X10 though.
I use it at least 75% of the time.
Most of the shots I post on this forum were taken with it.

I also have a GE X500 that I'm fond of. It's 16 megapixel, and a very nice little camera, but I like the Fuji better.

Doug

[kodaker]

As far as usable older digitals, my all time favorite is the NIKON COOLPIX 990. It is a mere 3 megapixel camera and was my first real digital camera. I have many 11x14 prints made with it and I would defy you to tell them from most 14 megapixel 11x14s. I actually have 3 990s. The first one I bought when it was new and cost me $900. Several years later I found one at a garage sale for 50 cents, and even later I was given another by a friend who knows I collect cameras. The 990 is still a fine camera especially for closeups.

[jack]

My first digital was a Kodak DC290. It had the high resolution of 2.1 megapixel. I got it through a company bonus points program where 1 point = 1 dollar and you had to spend the points through a catalog shop. If I recall correctly, it cost 899 points + shipping. If that was cash from my own pocket I don't think I would have bought it. When I got it, I was thrilled, but the camera literally "ate" batteries, which was a let down. I think Kodak had released a firmware fix which eased the battery consumption issue. I still have that camera as well as the wide and tele lens attachments. I should install some batteries and take a few pics with it some time.

[Stan]

Back in a former life, I worked in IT for universities. Since these were relatively smaller entities being a "department", guys like me did everything. I was the technology budgetary person, as well as the support guy who cleaned out the mouse. One of the things I got to do was buy digital cameras which we used a lot for all manner of things like facilities maintenance documentation to images for in-house desktop publishing.

I bought a lot of Kodak "DC" series cameras in those days because they were dead simple to use, performed well and relatively inexpensive. It even led me to my very first digital, a Kodak DC4800.