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【CK's Camera Post】Early Development of DSLR : Part II

CK Shene

Member
Part I of this "translated" article is here.

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Kodak DCS 200

Kodak released the Kodak DCS 200 on August 6 , 1992 , just over a year after introducing the Kodak DCS. DCS 200 uses Nikon F801/N80008 body, and later changed to Nikon F801s/N8008s. Why did Kodak choose N8008? There is a saying that it is because N8008 is the only mid-level model among Nikon SLRs that the camera back is changeable; why is it Nikon 's mid-level machine? Because the Kodak DCS 200 was originally intended to be a lower-priced model, the top-of-the-line Nikon F4 was too expensive.

Kodak produced a base like a rewind motor for the N8008, which has a built-in 80MB hard disk and uses AA batteries. The back of the base is extended to install the photosensitive chip and electronic circuits. It replaces the back of the N8008. So from a certain point of view, the Kodak DCS 200 is equivalent to adding a digital camera back to the Nikon F801/N8008 (see photo below).

Kodak Professional DCS 200 (1992)
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The resolution and format of the DCS 200 photosensitive chip are 1524x1012 and 14x9.3mm respectively (smaller than the 4/3 system), and the crop factor relative to the FF is 2.5. If a FF 50mm standard lens is used in the DCS 200, the angle of view is equivalent to 128.7mm in FF. Thus, it is very common to use DCS 200 with Nikon AF-D 20mm f/2.8. The photos taken are stored in the built-in hard disk of the base. Because there is no LCD on the back of the machine, the user has to transfer the photos to the computer through the SCSI interface and use the software provided by Kodak to view them. It should be noted that the JPEG format had not yet appeared in 1992, and Kodak used a unique TIFF format that was not recognized by general image processing software, so Kodak supplied software to display or convert the Kodak TIFF images to standard TIFF format. Kodak DCS 200 is a DSLR that Kodak tries to produce at a lower cost. The main target is the desktop publishing industry, so the production volume is not very large, and it is not common in the second-hand market. Plus, the Kodak DCS 200 was the first DSLR with autofocus in history .

Kodak DCS 4xx

Then, Kodak cooperated with the Associated Press ( AP for short ) and launched the AP NC2000 model using the Nikon F90/N90 body in February 1994. This is a camera designed for news photography of the Associated Press newspaper. The format is 1268x1012 ( 1.3 MP ) and 20.5x16.4mm. The the crop factor with respect to the FF is 1.65, the photosensitive chip is slightly smaller than Canon APS-C model.

In August of the same year ( 1994 ) , Kodak launched Kodak DCS 420 , which uses a photosensitive wafer smaller than AP NC2000 . The resolution and format are 1524x1012 ( 1.5 MP ) and 13.8x9.2mm , respectively , and hence the crop factor is 2.6 . Then in March 1995 , Kodak DCS 460 appeared, which used APS-H photosensitive chip with a format of 27.6x18.4mm , a resolution of 3060x2036 ( 6MP ) , and a crop factor of 1.3. The Canon EOS 1D released in 2001 is similar, so Kodak DCS 460 is the first one to use the APS-H format, 6 MP resolution model. In addition to DCS 420 and DCS 460 , there is also Kodak DCS 410 ( 1996 ) , which uses the same chip as DCS 420 , but it is a simplification of DCS 420 in terms of specifications.

Kodak DCS 4xx all use Nikon N90/F90 body. Nikon launched N90/F90 in 1992 , which is the time when Kodak launched DCS 200 , so Kodak can only use N8008/F801. When DCS 420 was launched in 1994 , N90/F90 was available. Nikon launched an improved version of the N90s/F90x in 1994 , and naturally Kodak would follow suit. Due to the schedule of Nikon changing the camera body, a small number of DCS 420 and DCS 460 in the early days used N90/F90 , and later changed to N90s/F90x .

The first photo below is of a Kodak DCS 410 using a Nikon N90s/F90x body . The second is the DCS 420 , and the third is the back of the DCS 420 with the photosensitive chip on it . The battery and PCMCIA memory card slot are in the base, and the back of the machine is connected to the fuselage by thin red wires. The fourth one is Kodak DCS 460. It is difficult to distinguish 420 and 460 from the appearance alone , but you must look at the mark on the base. DCS 410 is easier to recognize, because the Kodak lettering on the handle is red, DCS 420 and DCS 460 are white; from Kodak DCS 410 ( 1996 ) , the Kodak lettering on the Kodak Professional logo is red.

Kodak Professional DCS 410 (1996)
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Kodak Professional DCS 420 (1994)
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Kodak Professional DCS 460 (1995)
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Kodak EOS-DCS x

After the launch of DCS 460 , Kodak turned to cooperate with Canon . Since 1995 , Kodak has launched three new models with the Canon EOS 1 N body: Kodak EOS-DCS 5 ( March 1995 , format 13.8x9.2mm- crop factor 2.6 , resolution 1524x1012 is the same as DCS 420 ), EOS - DCS 3 ( July 1995 , format 20.5x16.4mm- crop factor 1.65 , resolution 1268x1012 ) and EOS - DCS 1 ( December 1995 , format 27.6x18.4mmAPS-H - crop factor 1.3 , resolution 3060x2936 - same as DCS 460 ).

The photo below is a Kodak EOS-DCS 1 ( 6MP ). Its structure is the same as that of the DCS 420. The bottom of the fuselage is still a base for installing batteries and PCMCIA memory cards, and the top of the base is the back of the photosensitive chip. From DCS 200 's back-type structure to the end of EOS DCS series, due to the further cooperation between Kodak and camera suppliers ( Canon and Nikon ), the integration of each model is relatively high, and it is no longer the body and the camera. The way the back is separated, but there is a sense of a complete camera, the machine seems to have the prototype of today's DSLR .

Kodak Professional EOS-DCS 1 (1995)
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Kodak DCS 5xx

Kodak launched the Kodak DCS 520 in February 1998, which still uses the Canon EOS 1N body. In September of the same year, it launched the DCS 560, officially entering the next-generation DSLR architecture. DCS 520 (the first photo below) and DCS 560 have the appearance of modern DSLRs, the base is not as big and bulky as the previous models, and there is an LCD on the back of the machine to view photos and use menu operations (the second photo below) . The built-in rechargeable battery of the previous DCS 4xx and EOS-DCS x series has also been replaced with a long strip rechargeable battery that can be replaced directly without dismantling the base. While the Kodak model was on the market, Canon also started selling Canon EOS D2000 and EOS D6000, which are DCS 520 and DCS 560 respectively. The third photo below is Canon EOS D2000, which is a DCS 520 except the brand is different.

Kodak Professional DCS 520 (1998)
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Canon EOS D2000 (1998)
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The resolution of DCS 520 is 1728x1152 (2MP), and the format is 22.5x15.1mm (the crop factor is 1.6 compared to the 135 format); the resolution of DCS 560 is 3040x2008 (6MP), and the format is 27.4x18.1mm ( The crop factor relative to the 135 frame is 1.3). The format of the former is about the current Canon APS-C model, while the latter is the APS-H format.

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CK
 
The DCS200 used a very simple, proprietary Raw format: ".KC2". The camera came with a Twain driver that moved files from the fixed internal disk to the computer. I ended up writing my own software to convert the .KC2 to BMP. You could call Kodak and speak to the engineers in those days, get all the information over the phone to describe the file format. The Kodak DCS400 series used TIFF format, saved files as a ".TIF". The N8008/N8008s had connections between the body and the Data Back for synchronizing the two. The Kodak DCS200 back used the Data Back sync signals for operation. I had Kodak make the DCS200ir, bought some 30 years ago. $12,400 for that model. I have some .KC2 files on this machine, also some DCS420 .TIF.
 
1524x1012- the resolution that the Twain driver converted the .KC2 file. The CCD was 1536x1024, which was actually stored in the .KC2- and what lines up with the KAF-1600 data sheet.
buds1BMP.JPG



The CCD readout also included calibration pixels, which normally were cut out of the image. I wrote my own software, so could get all of the image.
I tell people my first Digital camera is so old, it has Sprocket Holes.
 
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