March 11, 2013 at 16:17Childhood Digital Photography - Kodak DC50
I have long wanted to write a review of this camera, but somehow my hands did not reach. Now, finally, I was going to talk about what digital cameras of the mid-nineties were like.
Introducing - Kodak Digital Science DC50 Zoom Camera. The phone is nearby to realize the scale (I did not want to put something more modern). Under the cut - two dozen photos, a little text and a comparison of the quality of the photo with the camera of a modern phone.
Matrix : 0.38 Mp CCD
maximum resolution of 756 x 504
focal length (converted to 35 mm) : 37 - 117 mm (3x optical zoom)
Exposure : automatic 1 / 15s - 1 / 500s
Viewfinder : optical
Screen : 1.2 "black and white (information only)
Memory card : PCMCIA - ATA
Connectors : RS232C / RS422
Dimensions : 119 x 64 x 152 mm
Weight : 525 grams
Power : 4 AA batteries
I didn’t have the outer shell of the box, but it looked something like this:
And this is what available now:
power supply:
Interface cable (COM, 9pin) and a stack of documentation. There are no software disks left, only boxes from them.
Inventory and production date - July 1997.
The camera turns on when you open (shift) the viewfinder cover. Ahead of the lens, flash and viewfinder.
Rear eyepiece of the optical viewfinder, information screen and control buttons. Upstairs is zoom and descent. Below you can see the memory card.
To the left under the rubber plug is the connector for connecting the power supply and the interface connector.
On the right is a strap for conveniently holding the camera and a battery compartment. Despite the presence of the strap, you can comfortably hold the camera with one hand, but it’s difficult to shoot - the shutter button is tight and you have to hold the camera with your second hand to squeeze it to the end.
Memory card. And a telephone for scale.
After you take a picture of something, you need to transfer the pictures to a computer. Now this is due to some difficulties.
The first is the format of a memory card. PCMCIA can now be found only on older laptops, which (in working order) I do not have at hand. So I had to use a cable. But two more difficulties were connected with this - COM-port and software.
I got lucky with the COM port - it is on the working computer. But the software for communication with the camera is only for Windows 95 and NT4. Well, under Linux, there are some hints. I didn’t really want to red-eyed, so I took the path of least resistance - I installed Windows 95 in a virtual machine and threw a COM port there.
The software was installed without problems, saw the camera and began to download photos from there. Not fast.
I was lazy to install video drivers, I limited myself to 16 colors. :) The
connection is not very stable, but the copying process continues after a failure.
I didn’t bother with the guest’s connection with the host either, and simply mounted the disk image and pulled out the necessary files from there.
I didn’t make a serious comparison, I just took five pictures with a camera and from the same point I took pictures with the camera of my Galaxy S3 phone. Photos from the phone reduced to the same width. Plus, the phone has a slightly wider lens, but decided not to crop the pictures, but leave it as it is. With optical zoom: With zoom: I think that everything is clear here. “Budget” cameras fifteen years ago are a maximum of funny toys that cause some nostalgia.
www.kodak.com/global/en/service/digCam/dc50/ownerManual/toc.shtml - instructions
www.dcviews.com/press/pdffiles/Kodak-DC50-press.pdf - press release on the release of the camera
www.dcviews .com / reviews / Kodak-DC50-Kodak-V550 / Kodak-DC50-Kodak-V550-review.htm - a comparative review of Kodak Digital Science DC50 and Kodak EasyShare V550 (2006)
Introducing - Kodak Digital Science DC50 Zoom Camera. The phone is nearby to realize the scale (I did not want to put something more modern). Under the cut - two dozen photos, a little text and a comparison of the quality of the photo with the camera of a modern phone.
Technical specifications and equipment
Matrix : 0.38 Mp CCD
maximum resolution of 756 x 504
focal length (converted to 35 mm) : 37 - 117 mm (3x optical zoom)
Exposure : automatic 1 / 15s - 1 / 500s
Viewfinder : optical
Screen : 1.2 "black and white (information only)
Memory card : PCMCIA - ATA
Connectors : RS232C / RS422
Dimensions : 119 x 64 x 152 mm
Weight : 525 grams
Power : 4 AA batteries
I didn’t have the outer shell of the box, but it looked something like this:
And this is what available now:
power supply:
Interface cable (COM, 9pin) and a stack of documentation. There are no software disks left, only boxes from them.
Inventory and production date - July 1997.
Design and usability
The camera turns on when you open (shift) the viewfinder cover. Ahead of the lens, flash and viewfinder.
Rear eyepiece of the optical viewfinder, information screen and control buttons. Upstairs is zoom and descent. Below you can see the memory card.
To the left under the rubber plug is the connector for connecting the power supply and the interface connector.
On the right is a strap for conveniently holding the camera and a battery compartment. Despite the presence of the strap, you can comfortably hold the camera with one hand, but it’s difficult to shoot - the shutter button is tight and you have to hold the camera with your second hand to squeeze it to the end.
Memory card. And a telephone for scale.
"Extraction" of pictures
After you take a picture of something, you need to transfer the pictures to a computer. Now this is due to some difficulties.
The first is the format of a memory card. PCMCIA can now be found only on older laptops, which (in working order) I do not have at hand. So I had to use a cable. But two more difficulties were connected with this - COM-port and software.
I got lucky with the COM port - it is on the working computer. But the software for communication with the camera is only for Windows 95 and NT4. Well, under Linux, there are some hints. I didn’t really want to red-eyed, so I took the path of least resistance - I installed Windows 95 in a virtual machine and threw a COM port there.
The software was installed without problems, saw the camera and began to download photos from there. Not fast.
I was lazy to install video drivers, I limited myself to 16 colors. :) The
connection is not very stable, but the copying process continues after a failure.
I didn’t bother with the guest’s connection with the host either, and simply mounted the disk image and pulled out the necessary files from there.
Sample Pictures
I didn’t make a serious comparison, I just took five pictures with a camera and from the same point I took pictures with the camera of my Galaxy S3 phone. Photos from the phone reduced to the same width. Plus, the phone has a slightly wider lens, but decided not to crop the pictures, but leave it as it is. With optical zoom: With zoom: I think that everything is clear here. “Budget” cameras fifteen years ago are a maximum of funny toys that cause some nostalgia.
Related Links
www.kodak.com/global/en/service/digCam/dc50/ownerManual/toc.shtml - instructions
www.dcviews.com/press/pdffiles/Kodak-DC50-press.pdf - press release on the release of the camera
www.dcviews .com / reviews / Kodak-DC50-Kodak-V550 / Kodak-DC50-Kodak-V550-review.htm - a comparative review of Kodak Digital Science DC50 and Kodak EasyShare V550 (2006)