Classic digital cameras

[nilanjan_sen]

Which digital cameras in your opinion deserve to be called classics? And why?

 

A classic may have been ahead of its time, or a breakthrough in price vs.

performance, or wildly popular, or significant in some other way.

 

My nominees:

 

Sony DSC-F717: One of the best prosumer cameras of all time, establishing a new

level of excellence under $1000.

 

Nikon D70: Perhaps the first genuine crossover DSLR, capable enough for pros

but within the reach of amateurs.

[jimstrutz]

Canon D30: First practical DSLR for the masses. This could be argued, I know.

 

Canon 300D / Digital Rebel: First DSLR with what was viewed at the time as having a reasonable cost.

 

Panasonic FZ10: First superzoom with IS and fast aperture that made the zoom actually usable.

 

I would disagree about the D70 though.

 

That of course is the problem with a list of this type. We won't agree. Maybe in 30 years we will be able to look back and have a consensus, but I think it's too early still.

[keith_van_hulle1]

Heck, in 30 years, unless things change, I'll doubt most of what is being sold today will still be working . . .

[neild]

Canon 5D: first FF camera that was kind of/sort of affordable...

 

;-)

[archie_alcantara1]

Olympus C-8080, superb picture quality for its class. One of the best p&s digicam in terms of picture quality.

[._._z]

Olympus 3030.

[david lloyd]

Nikon D1, surely..? wouldn't this be the first practical digital SLR?

[david lloyd]

I can also nominate the Apple Quicktake (1994) which was the first (consumer-level) digital

camera, I think. (640 by 480 pixel resolution.)

 

Or how about the first commercially manufactured one, which was the Kodak DCS-100

(1991)? It was 1.3 megapixels, based on a Nikon, and sold for 13,000 dollars.

[craig_gillette]

I think all of those were in some ways significant, not sure I'd suggest necessarily "classic."

 

I think the Canon G3 (and then it's a little hard to choose, but the Canon A's (maybe the A70?), one or a couple of which went a long towards driving several competitors into the ground and also made it clear that the customers were going to divide into several lines - the small optical 3-4x zooms, then the Sony DSC-707 or maybe actually the 505 which with some of the Oly's - the 700?, established the long zoom evf cameras.

 

Not sure they'd be classic so much as milestones.

[pvp]

IMO there aren't any digicams that have been around long enough to qualify as "classic" cameras. And with the market continuing to evolve so rapidly, no digital camera of any age is ever likely to develop enough of a following to get the votes; they're all obsolete about 2 weeks after they come outta the box.

 

"Classic" cameras all use film.

[nilanjan_sen]

Thanks for all your replies. I agree that my use of the term 'classic' may have been questionable. Digital technology is advancing so fast that any camera built today will not be usable decades later in the same way that, say, a Leica M3 or Hasselblad 500 is usable today. However, classic or not, you have pointed out some of the major milestones to date.

 

Any thoughts on the significance of the Kodak DCS series?

[photo5]

I felt the Nikon Coolpix 990 was a classic in the year 2000 when I got one. It was my first digital camera. Pro quality build, excellent lens, fantastic handling. The battery door failed and I sold it for a Canon Powershot Pro1, another classic.

 

Dave

[joshua_dollins]

Can't think of any classics really. I can think of some early models from the 80s (like sonys!) that are now classic/old. I think digital rebels could be classics. I read somewhere Nasa is responsible for digital. I've owned two old 2mp cameras (HP, Kodak) and two others since then. I wouldn't consider them classic