photoartflightEarly Digital Osprey – Fly-bys
I am going through old backup hard drives to cleanup and remove files that are not needed. I found a few images of Ospreys from a local Nature Reserve taken many years ago near my old home. I was using a 400mm lens, but with the 1.5 crop camera, the Field of View was equal to using a 600mm lens. These were from very early digital cameras, a Nikon D1x (2001, 5.3 megapixel) and Fujifilm S2 Pro (2002, 6 megapixel). I also used before these a Kodak DCS1, a modified Canon EOS-1D (1995), with a 6 megapixel sensor, but had no preview and used PCMCIA cards. The DCS1 used special Kodak software to process the digital B&W raw files to color. Very strange system to use, but it was the beginning of digital photography as we know. It is interesting to see how far and good digital imagery has come! But your cell phone probably produces a better file than these early cameras.
Kodak DCS1 (1995 ~$20,000)
photoartflight 
Wow, vintage!
Yes! It is amazing how good we have it now! Plus it keeps getting better!
Whoever would have thought digital would catch on? 😉
Yes! I owned a busy commercial studio with lots of corporate clients. The first year we offered Digital Services it was about 50/50 Film versus Digital. The next year it was 5-10 jobs film, the rest Digital. We used 4×5 view cameras with scanning backs and Kodak DCS1, and added Nikon and Fujifilm cameras. Photoshop was very basic and no layers and no history palette to go back to. Basically you saved a file for every move in case you had to go back.
And that was “state of the art”! Look how far we’ve come in such a short time. I have to say I don’t miss the expenses of film days. I just returned from my annual Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge trip yesterday and had shot over 900 photos… imagine the film costs with that! Great work and nostalgic blog! William
Yes! Most of our work back then was shot on transparency film. We had a continuous E6 film processor so we could process a lot of film in a day. So during a shoot we would be processing the film. Our clients could leave with finished E6 Transparency film or pick it up the next morning. Mostly 8×10 & 4×5 sheet film, then 120 & 35mm roll film. I used to like photographing air shows and military aviation. Could shoot 20 to 40 rolls per show so it was nice to only have the cost of film and slide mounts. Processing a 35mm 36 exp. roll of Ektachrome with slide mounts was about 75 cents per roll! Digital imaging has certainly enhanced our ability to produce amazing images!
How fun to go back and review/compare to what equipment we’re using today. Great shots from the past, Reed!
Thanks Donna! I think we are spoiled with the equipment and choices we have today! It is an amazing time to photograph your favorite subjects!