In the beginning, it was not uncommon to see the same camera, under different names.

Like here with a Sanyo and an Epson

Epson PhotoPC (1996)
Epson's first digital camera!
310,000 pixels (640x480) with 1mb Internal
Storage 1MB Int.

Sanyo VPC-G1 (1996)
Sanyo’s first digital camera!
310,000 pixels (640x480) with 1mb Internal
Storage 1MB Int.

Hi Marc

I’m really enjoying this thread and I just want to offer you some encouragement to keep going with it. One thing that occurs to me is a sense of disappointment that, after all the innovative shapes of these cameras, we have now pretty much ended up with digital cameras which look like SLRs despite the shape (with pentaprism housing) no longer being necessary.

Thank you very much it is very nice. 👍🏻
I can only agree with you on this point. And it's particularly discouraging to see all these MLs, which stupidly imitate the SLRs of another era. 🤡

SEGA Digio SJ-1 (1996)

A funny camera

SEGA Digio SJ-1 (1996)
0.25MP 1/5’’ sensor (320x240)
Storage: SmartMedia 5v 0.5mp
¥29,800 ($300.00)

It uses the smallest memory card ever made for a camera (in storage capacity)
A SmartMedia of 0.5 MB

Device sold in Japan and Australia only !!

I have the impression that it is impossible to download the photos taken with the SEGA
We must be forced to use the game console of the same name, to achieve this!
I have never seen a single software for PC

If someone can explain to me how to download the photographs taken with my SEGA Digio SJ-1

They don't all look like SLRs.

Don

To be fair, he didn’t say that - and then there are the Sony NEXes and A6000s (? - I don’t follow Sony hardware) which pack an amazing amount of functionality into a very small package. There are many that don’t, but all the major manufacturers have followed the SLR design for most of their range. I rather liked the look of the designs where the lens assembly was in a separate swivelling module, though I never had chance to try one.

Epson PhotoPC

Epson was also very active in the early years.

Epson PhotoPC 600 (1997)
Epson PhotoPC 500 (1996)
Epson PhotoPC (1996)

Epson PhotoPC (1996)
Epson's first digital camera!
310,000 pixels (640x480) with 1mb Internal
$1000.00

Epson PhotoPC 500 (1996)
310,000-pixels sensor (640x480)
Storage: 2 MB Int.
$700.00

Epson PhotoPC 600 (1997)
810,000-pixels sensor (1024x768)
Storage: 2MB CompactFlash
$850.00

And that brings us to the year 1997 …

1997

We finally change the year 😎

HP Photosmart (1997)
310,000 pixels (640x480)
HP Memory cards 2mb Internal
The First HEWLETT PACKARD
$500.00 USD

The Kodak DC120 Digital Zoom Camera (1997)
820,000 pixels sensor (964x850) with Int. (1280x960)
Storage: 2 MB Int. & CompactFlash
$999.00 USD

A camera that many people here must know. It is an improved version of the DC50

Kodak DC120 Digital Camera zoom (1997)
eMac 800 mhz HD 40GB 17" Flat CRT (2002)
Sofware Transfert d'images KODAK

I can’t restrain myself any longer - just how many vintage cameras have you got? How do you store them, deal with battery problems etc.?

About 200, only the cameras that made history, in my eyes of course 😎
Let me answer in more detail in a few days as a conclusion and/or start of a new thread on early DSLRs/MLs

👍🏻

And now the little PowerShot 350 from Canon

Canon PowerShot 350 (1997)
310,000 pixels sensor (640x480)
Storage: 2MB CompactFlash
$700USD

An example of the confusion between who does what! ⁉️

Sony's second camera

Sony DSC-F1 (1997)
310,000 pixels sensor (640x480)
Storage: 4mb Internal $850 USD

Another device with internal memory
No memory card, we have to connect the device to a Mac or a PC :(
This is borderline unacceptable in 1997!!

Here is a Mac PowerBook G3 with Mac OS 8.6 and Photoshop 6.0 and a Sony Digital Still Camera utility 1.5a plugin

It's always a small victory! to get fifteen or more years old software working again to be able to recover the trapped photos 😎

Ridicule does not kill 😈

Once again, this demonstrates that old habits are hard to change. 😂

I am still annoyed when I see my nose leave a smudge on the LCD because the EVF is too centred, but maybe it is mpy a bad idea to have the EVF and LCD and the lens all on the same plane. More rangefinder style with the viewfinder all the way on the left side without any faux pentaprism hump seems more suitable for mirrorless, but there could be good reasons to continue the film SLR shape, even for someone like me who has never used either film or SLR before.

Fujix DS-300 1.3M CCD

A camera that did not go unnoticed in 1997
It is the first compact that exceeds one million pixels
Unfortunately, its price has cooled more than one, myself included 😕

The Magnificent
Fujix DS-300 1.3M CCD (1997)
1,280,000 pixels (1280x1000)
248,000 Yen or $2,400.00 USD
With PCMCIA card

I ended up buying it in 2002 for $150.00 USD about 6% of its original price 😎