Rare or Junk? DCS200

[Plochmann]

I came across 2 of these:https://www.digitalkameramuseum.de/en/cameras/item/kodak-dcs-200
And it turns out only 3,500ish were sold. I feel it's a small, but cool part of film to digital history. I collect vintage stuff I like, and have a modest 30 camera collection. My friend has over 200. And both of us haven't heard much about the Kodak DCS200, and can't find them for sale.

Anyone use it before, or know of it, had it back in the early 90s??? Opinion of it being something cool, or more like a misstep by Kodak that is junk?

 

[MattKing]

Moved to the Digital Cameras sub-forum, because it seems to fit there better.
Welcome to Photrio!

 

[Patrick Robert James]

As one of the first digital cameras it is cool but taking pictures with it these days would be a bit much. If you find a cheap one and you want it, why not? Make sure it has everything you need to use it.

The first good digital Kodak was the 14n. That would still take a decent photo today if you had enough light with it's full frame 14mp sensor. I owned one for a while. It was all downhill from there though. Kodak did make some decent medium format digital backs way back, but again, they were superseded by other manufacturers. Kind of sad really. Monumental stupidity I'd say.

 

[4season]

Oh man that brings back memories! I think it was in the 1990s when one of the San Francisco newspapers sold off a bunch of those, and I bought one. By today's standards, super-low dynamic range, and color rendition is muddy, but 1 megapixel images from a proper SLR was the stuff of dreams. When new, the camera might easily have cost as much as a decent automobile.

Not a misstep on Kodak's part: DCS200 was the best that was possible given the available technology. Newer DCS models gained features we take for granted now, like color LCDs and flash card storage. But eventually, Canon blew them out of the water with their first digital SLRs, which combined great features with a price that was within reach of a serious enthusiast (on par with a Leica M6 IIRC).

 

[4season]

I only saved a handful of DCS200 images, and here are two of the better ones.

 

[Plochmann]

Thanks for sharing so much about it, that's the most I have ever heard about the camera. It's hard to believe it came out in the early 90s, I feel the image quality matches my early 2000s Broadcast Cameras.