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Updated Monday, May 14, 2007
Digital cameras

Digital Images Direct from Reality

by David Welsh

A few years ago, Theresa and I gave a talk to the local STC chapter on image processing. At that time the first digital cameras were beginning to hit the market (electronic still camera appeared in the early 1980s, but they weren't digital). The first "low priced" gray scale digital camera I remember, the Photoman by Logitech had just been announced. The Logitech was short on resolution, image storage space, and didn't do color. As a camera it was "focus free" - in other words, a box camera.

Note: Jon Barrett wrote me in an email comment on the above:
"Well, close.

The Fotoman was designed by Dycam in Chatsworth CA and for sale by that company in 1991.  We licensed Logitech to make our design in '92.  Few remember, but I do because I started Dycam, and spent months on the deal with Logitech, and have good memories of many people across the table.

But Dycam, not Logitech, sold the first digital camera."

Digital cameras have come along way since then. High end digital cameras have or will replace conventional cameras for catalogue work and news photography. Will they replace film for your application? (When I wrote that question a few years ago, there was still room for doubt.)

"High end" use to mean $10,000 to $25,000 dollars or more. At that level you could get cameras that are truly competitive with film for all but the most exacting uses. Now those kinds of cameras are below $5000.00. But if you are looking for a price break and can live with a mere eight mega pixels, you can get that below $1000.00 in the case of the Cannon Rebel.

Professional level cameras have so far been based on conventional camera bodies. The advantages of this approach are that neither the manufacturer nor the customer have to worry about the quality or availability of optics. Companies like Nikon and Cannon are well known to photographers and accessories for these camera bodies are available everywhere. The disadvantage in the past has been that the charge coupled devices (CCD) that were used to collect the images were not big enough to fit the 35mm format of these film-based camera bodies. Consequently, in most of these cameras, the photographer could only use the portion of the view finder corresponding to the CCD to compose pictures. The view finders have been adapted for digital in the newer "made for digital" bodies but older lens are still effectively longer than they would be on film versions of the camera. A 35mm wide angle lens will produce results close to what a normal 50mm lens will produce on film. New designs feature larger sensors that produce a close match to the effective focal length in the film version or a line of Digital" lens that are match to smaller sensors. Even the more expensive DSLR cameras are near the price we used to pay for top quatiliy film cameras if you adjust for inflation.

While DSLR cameras are doing very well. Future break-throughs in digital photography will probably depart from film camera design. After all, there are lots of pieces in a conventional film camera that are not needed in a digital camera. You don't need reflex mirrors or ground glass. With a good, big, fast LCD viewer on the back, you have though-the-lens viewing and don't even need an optical viewfinder. There's no mechanical shutter to worry about. No film advance mechanism. High-end consumer cameras CCD are getting so good, however, that lens and focus mechanisms are beginning to matter more.

Years ago when I started this page I said "The ideal digital camera would:

  • Fit in your shirt pocket
  • Cost under a thousand dollars
  • Produce magazine cover shot quality
  • Store hundred of pictures or take cheap removable storage
  • Take interchangeable lens or have a zoom lens that would cover the equivalent of from 21mm to 200mm when compared to a conventional 35mm camera
  • Be able to record at 5 frames per second or more
  • Have sensitivity equivalent to films speeds of 10 to 3000 or more
  • Have shutter speeds of 60 seconds to 1/5000 of a second
  • Provide an easy way to transfer pictures into the computer

While most of these features are now available in many camera, no camera yet combines them all. (The features in blue are available in at least some under $1000.00 camera. The features in red...well some of them used to be in red.) When one comes along that does, film-based cameras will become strictly fine arts tools. We are getting very close to the day when it will be tough to argue that film is better. Camera resolution has gone from "VGA", 640 x 480, to 16 plus mega pixels. How much is enough? How much is enough is a matter of opinion. A two mega pixel camera can produce a fine 5x7 and a satisfactory 8x10. My three mega pixel Nikon 990 produces an 8.5 by 11 inch print that's probably as good as my Epson C80 printer can do (which is very good!). My daughter's Cannon G2 Powershot at four mega pixels produces the same result out of the same printer, but on a cropped picture it can do better than the Nikon as you might expect. My 8 mega pixel Minolta A2 makes a sharp 19 by 13 print. On the other hand, I have 8.5 by 11 prints of pictures produced by my Kodak 120. You can tell the clarity is not as good as the pictures from the other two cameras, but the pictures are still pleasing if you are not pushing your nose on to the print to "see the resolution."

The Minolta A2, a discontinued and already obsolete camera, has image stablization...something none of my film cameras had and something I didn't put in my list of features.

Here are some links to information on what is presently available:

Links to Cameras Manufactures

  • Discontinued Apple 200, 150 Quick Take: The Apple 150 was among the first digital cameras but now seems to be gone. The link that used to take you to a description of the camera at the Apple Web site now shows you Apple printers. The Apple 150 was updated to the 200. Base resolution remained 640 by 480, but storage options increased, an LDC viewer was added and the look of the camera updated. Stores 32 standard-quality or 16 high-quality 24-bit color images. A snap-on, close up lens system lets users capture high-quality images from just 10 to 14 inches away. I've included no links here because the camera is long gone, but if your curious about this camera, a search in Google still finds some pages describing it.
  • Olympus Camera line Olympus is a film camera manufacturer of long standing. They jumped into the digital camera market early with the well regarded D-220 and have added cameras at fast pace. Their offerings range from simple cameras to 10 megapixel SLR pro models  The Olympus home page is: http://www.olympusamerica.com/
  • EASYSHARE P712 Zoom Digital Camera  is currently the top of the Kodak consumer line as much as you can pick the top product such a diverse line up. It features 7.1 megapixels. 12x zoom, and many other features. Check Kodak's digital camera information page for more on Kodak's current products.
  • Discontinued Kodak DC120 This is a now discontinued successor to the DC50. While other makers of under $1000.00 camera were Northern California taken with DC120. Click for larger image.content with 640 x 400 Resolution, this camera broke the 1,000,000 pixel barrier. This was possibly the first under $1000.00 camera that a photographer could take seriously. It still falls short of what conventional film will do. But 35mm film falls short of 4x5 film too, and that didn't stopped the press from switching over to 35mm. This camera was good enough for many smaller publications, at least as a supplement to film. (I have one of these if anyone is interested in picking one up. The flash no longer works. I took the picture on the left with this camera. Click it for a larger view.)
  • Kodak DC210 On the heals of the 120 came the 210, a similar mega pixel camera in a more stylish package. This camera isn't in the Kodak "box" case of the DC50, 40 and 120.
  • Discontinued The Kodak DC50 camera had most of the features of the DC120 except high resolution. Kodak's Website history pages mention some of these cameras.
  • Casio has been making digital cameras for a long time and the company has always managed to include some surprising features at a low price point. They currently have three configurations ranging up to 10 megapixels. The cameras don't use optical viewfinders but instead have large LDC screens on the back that act as a viewfinder.
    Casio seems to change their site around more frequently than I update so try the home page link below.
  • Casio USA Home Page
  • Dycam Digital Camera Company: Dycam used to only market cameras under their own name. In fact they were the first to market a digital camera, but now they sell other manufacture's cameras as well. The Dycam cameras are shaped like early versions of the Logitech Photoman models but have been updated. The model 10C has 640x480 resolution and color. They have added the ADC (Agricultural Digital Camera) which take pictures of farmer's fields in the the visible and near infrared spectrum to show the condition of the plants. An interesting adaptation of old but pioneering technology by a small but pioneering company.
  • Discontinued Chinon ES-3000. This camera is virtually the same camera as the Dycam. Chinon doesn't seem to have a Website any more.
  • EPSON America, Inc. Digital Cameras: Epson sold the first under $500.00 digital camera, the Epson 500. Resolution 640 x 420. There have been several models including the 650, 700, 750Z,  800, and the EPSON PhotoPC® 850Z with two a megapixel censor. Currently, there are no cameras at their site, but there are printers, scanners, and photo frames.
  • Canon Cameras: Canon has a full line of  consumer camera which they frequently add to and update. Their specialty is cameras in a very compact form factor and top grade SLR digitals. If your looking for a "shirt pocket camera", they may have the camera you've been dreaming about. They also make the high end full featured SLR interchangeable lens cameras based on the well regarded Cannon film cameras. These camera use a CMOS sensor which was once regarded as second rate. Cannons has figured out how to deal with the noise problems of CMOS sensors. One magazine declared that the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II produces results that are "better than film."
  • Vivitar Digital Cameras:  Another film camera maker joins the digital camera field. Vivitar introduced the CMOS sensor in their first cameras. They now make a number of models ranging to 10 megapixel models.
  • JVC - Digital Still Cameras: The GC-QX5HD features 3.34 native resolution, 6 mega pixels via software. On.my last visit JVC has 3 models. Worth a look, but this company is much more interested in video. I'm not even sure they still sell still cameras but the page is still up. JVC Home Page
  • Konica/Minolta vacated the camera business, both digital and film, in 2006, selling out to Sony. They had some strong contenders under the Minolta name in particular. My A2 continues to do a good job. They didn't make their own image sensor and in one story I saw, they cited this as a main reason they could not longer compete.
  • Minolta USA - See above
  • Polaroid: Polaroid now markets a bunch of consumer oriented cameras ranging from ten mega pixel models on down to cooling looking but modest perfoming cameras aimed at the young and hip. Polaroid was briefly and leader in high end consumer digital cameras and the first company that I saw to do an ad featuring a full-page picture taken with their camera, the PDC-3000. You can see the full current selection at their Website.
  • Fuji FinePix Digital Cameras: Fuji's Website wouldn't let me leave to get back to this site during my most recent visit but the site provides lots of information about the extensive Fuji line of camera. Fuji has it's own image sensor the some think is superior.
  •   Hewlett Packard: HP originally joined the crowded low-end digital camera field with Photosmart a 640 x 480 resolution camera that was part of the total "Photosmart" solution. That was replaced by the C-20 with megapixel (1152 x 872) resolution, but that's been discontinued long ago in favor of newer variants. This site changes frequently. It is currently a full blown shopping site so if you like their cameras you can buy there.
  • Toshiba PDR-2, Through the Toshiba PDR-5300 with a 5.0 Megapixel CCD sensor The PDR-2 camera, one of the first cameras from Toshiba, featured a CMOS sensors, an emerging technology, and an integrated PC ATA card for direct connect to a laptop - 640 x 480 resolution. Now the family has extended to include a number of cameras up to 5 mega pixels.
  • Kyocera, Yashica: This company has three cameras that start with numbers prefaced by "EZ" which tips us off as to what they think is their target market. These are nice little cameras with up to 7 mega pixel resolution. 
  • Nikon: The Nikon digital camera page covers Nikon's entire line and any news. When last visited, it was using ugly and hard-to-read multicolored type, but it will get you to what you want to know. There is also a "cool" Coolpix site that is very slick and advertising like.

    I have the 990 and have been pleased with it. When I bought it, the 900 series cameras were as close to professional as you can get without interchangeable lens. I did have to have warranty work done on it because the battery compartment door failed, but it was done free and fairly fast. Later it failed again, but now it is old aqnd dated anyway. The knob that sets some modes of operation also broke off, but it otherwise still works.

    I took the picture on the left with this camera. Click it for a larger view. Both the picture on the left and the picture taken with the Kodak 120 above have been down sampled to 800 pixels across for the web. This was turned into a JPEG with moderate compression The pictures will of comparable quality on the Web but you can see the difference 3.34 mega pixels makes on a high quality ink jet print.

  • Panasonic Palmcam: Panasonic started with two models; the 1000 and the 1080. Both were small and low priced with 640 x 480 resolution . Then they added the PV-DC1580 PalmCam™ "megapixel" version with "XGA" resolution and eight MB of removable storage. Since then they've moved on to produce a variety of cameras...some in cooperation with Leica camera.
     
  • Sony Mavica: The first Mavica cameras were unique in having built-in floppy drive storage. Just save the 640 x 480 resolution pictures on a floppy. Then read the files into any PC application that supports JPEG - right from the floppy disk! The models are MVC-FD7, MVC-FD-51, MVC-FD-71, MVC-FD-81, and MVC-FD-91. The MVC-FD-91 features XGA resolution (1024 x 768), a 14X optical zoom; the equivalent of a 37mm to 518mm on a 35mm camera. The problem with Sony's approach of using a floppy drive to record and transfer pictures is that it makes the camera big and prone to mechanical failure. There is also a limited amount of storage on a floppy which means either working at lower resolutions or using a lot of floppies. These drawbacks were out weighed in the minds of many buyers by the simplicity of moving the pictures into the computer using technology that computer users already understand. Now floppy drives are disappearing and soon there will be new users who have no idea what a floppy looks like. Schools snapped up these cameras for awhile. Sony's last shot at the Mavica concept was to burn the image to a CD right in the camera! That camera, MVC-CD400, recorded a respectable 4 mega pixels of data per picture. Sony now has a full line of cameras and is making use of technology picked up when they bought out Konica/Minolta in their newest cameras.
  • Pentax: A great name in traditional cameras, Pentax has a full line of digital cameras. The K10D is the current hot one at under a grand for a full featured SLR 10 mega pixel. Here's the Pentax USA home page link.
  • Umax MDX8000 and Photo Run: The MDX8000 is another camera that has come and gone. Umax is a well know name in scanners and that's what they are showing at their Web site. The MDX8000 was a relatively high resolution camera (1000 x 800 dpi and 30 bit color) selling for about $340.00 on the street, and it's little brother the PhotoRun, was selling for about $200.00. The 8000 sports sound recording capability and removable storage. The lens is "focus free" (which means it can't be focused). It uses a CMOS sensor. The PhotoRun is small and sub 640 resolution.
  • Hitachi Camera Discontinued Hitachi MP-EG1A: This camera records up to 20 minutes of video or 3000 704x480 stills. It features a 260 Meg. hard drive on a PC Card for lots of storage, a 3X optical zoom lens and more. The Model M2 version will take a one GB hard drive card that will store up to 12,000 still pictures or two hours of mpeg movies or 16 hours of audio. These cameras were an early attempt to combine video and still into one camera. Hitachi still make video cameras but seems to be out of the still camera business.
  • Ricoh digital Cameras:  Ricoh was an early entrant in the digital camera wars. They were early with such features as sound recording, swinging LDC viewers and motion clips. Their current offering range from up to a 4 mega pixel camera with all the traditional Ricoh features. See all the cameras at Ricoh's US digital camera page.
  • Agfa Digital Cameras - The Agfa 35mm camera was based on a Minolta camera body. It had an image resolution of 1,528 x 1,148 pixels and came with a zoom lens. This camera has been discontinued. So has Agfa, as a producer of films, and photographic printing paper. Agfa still offers support for its former camera line at its support Website.

Scanning camera backs

  •  Leaf Digital Camera Back Home Page These are the kind of camera that the pros use for product photography (when the product isn't going to be moving). Leaf backs for capturing live subjects. This camera back and other newer leaf models are not any longer scanning backs but a 33 mega pixel CCD real time capture device.

Digital Video Cameras that can also record still pictures

There is a new class of video camcorder that is going to also impact the digital still market. These cameras record in digital format on DAT style tapes, DVDs, tiny hard drives, and flash memory. They can record at resolutions similar to low-end digital still cameras. Since they use a sensor designed to capture video in low light, they are great for snapping stills in low light but usually have limited resolution. Below are links to some of the players.

Other ways to capture digital images

  • Play Inc., now a site selling DVDs and music, used to be the home of the makers the "Snappy", a handy frame grabber that was become the benchmark for quality digital pictures from conventional video tape. If you already have a high quality video camera, the Snappy let you capture good quality digital pictures from video tape. The advantages to using video compared to a digital still camera are: works in low light, wide-ranging zoom lens, lots or pictures on one roll of tape. The disadvantages were: video isn't very sharp to start with, wide angle lens resolution of most camcorders is poor, no extreme wide angle on most camcorder zooms. You get the best capture direct from the camera rather than from tape play back. Alas, the Snappy appears to be gone and the analog video camera that it serviced is going fast. And there are better video capture tools for analog video. The ATI All-in-Wonder video card does a nice job.
  • Seattle Film Works/PhotoWorks used to process conventional film and return scanned pictures on a floppy disk that had about the same resolution as a low-end digital camera. But you got the prints or slide too. Now they are printing from CD- ROM and providing other digital services. Of course Kodak will do that from any drugstore photo counter.

Reviews of digital cameras and sales outlets on the Web

Your comments and suggested URLs for this page are welcome. For more on digital imaging, open or download our "Working With Images" PDF file. While it's a little dated now, it still covers the basics well.
(Requires Adobe Acrobat viewer from Adobe Systems.)

Call David or Theresa Welsh at (248) 548-7643 or fax us at (248) 548-8959 or email us at theresa@explainamation.com, david@explainamation.com.

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