After sifting through a dusty shelf in the office basement, I pulled out Shannon-Rose Design’s first digital camera for the office (and it still works). Since we are not a photo studio, I didn’t want to spend a bucketload on a professional digital camera. My goal was to have a full design studio, with high-end scanning capabilities, to photograph small images, print film and matchprints all in house. Except for the technology, we still have a similar business model today.
In 1996 we used our drum scanner on a daily basis, but times were changing and we began to look into digital cameras. The cost of having a photographer shoot for every task was a hassle. We wanted something that could quickly fill the gap of supplying small images for catalogs and mockup brochures. In the mid 90′s, the single megapixel camera was not an affordable option, the DKC was the best option at the time without going all professional. The largest file it could take was 72 dpi at 11 inches wide, a total of 1.7 megabite jpeg. That worked out to a usable 3 inch printed photo with no pixelization.
The shape was very different from other cameras of the time. Since it was really the first of its kind, they felt it should not have traditional camera styling.
It had an incredible macro lens that was similar to modern point-and-shoots.
At the time, most digital cameras used a slow, serial port for data I/O. The DKC-ID1 featured a high-speed SCSI interface that downloads 30x faster. The camera can be controlled by the computer via the SCSI interface. It was a hassle, though, since the connector is on the front of the camera—I don’t know what the designers where thinking at the time. You needed special drivers and cable, but neither work with current configurations.
Full Set of Features Including Camera, Flash Cards, Charger and Storage Bag. For the whole package I spent around 1400.00, including the optional charger. The original battery is not in these images; it died a long time ago.
I stopped using this camera about seven years ago. After turning it on the other day, I noticed that it still had photos on the 15-meg flash card. All the images are held hostage on the card until I figure out how to upload them onto a computer. Until then, I will have to settle looking at them through the viewfinder.
Tags: first-run digital cameras · Sony DKC-ID1 · technology
Hey Rich…I remember that camera!!!
Reading the last bit I understand that you do not know how to transfer images from a compact flash card to a computer??????? That’s one the easiest things in the world these days!