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LGR - Epson PhotoPC: 1995 Digital Camera

🕑 Added 2018-01-05 03:04:10 +0000 UTC

Comments

LGR

I believe his series is on indefinite hold right now

Addison Chernow

Oh. Wow. My first experience with a digital camera was with one of those Sony Mavica cameras that took a floppy disk. The first one I owned myself was a Sony Cybershot that used the “gum stick” flash memory cards (Sony’s proprietary format, I forget the name). I had a 4MB card that came with the camera, and a “high capacity” card, but don’t remember the size of it. Sadly don’t have it anymore to check. Donated it in one of my moves when I was cleaning out my junk boxes. Besides I had an iPhone by then which took way better pictures.

Maximilien Noal

That reminds me of your brother's Cameraderie series on YouTube. I enjoyed it a lot but didn't watch in a long while. I wonder if there are new episode. Since I'm still suscribed but didn't click on the bell I'm sure YT forgot to notify me.

Lindsay Michelle

I liked this video on an early digital camera! I do remember those batteries with the test bars where you had to press inhumanly hard to get anything to show up... definitely a relic of the 90s, haha. I had a digital camera in the mid-00s but I feel like it was still a pretty new field even that recently! Especially because the last time I used a non-digital camera was 2006 or so. Speaking of film cameras, I remember when you bought that camera from Goodwill on an episode of Thrifts and you had an adventure trying to find a place that would even develop the photos on it, haha :D

Lon Seidman

Oooh .. I thought about getting one of those but then opted for the Kodak DC120 which had a higher resolution.

But can it take pictures of pointy nipples? ;-)

The colors on it really are impressive to me for a mid 90's camera and I love the photos you took that make you question the era they were taken. Excellent video!

Alexandra Marie

This was great, thank you!

Andrew Dalton

I worked at a PC dealer and we had one of those, we tried using it to take photos to load onto the website we were developing, it was nothing short of painful using it

Alyxx the Rat

Loved this episode

LGR

I don't doubt that. The 640x480 images certainly have more notable compression artifacts.

LGR

heh

LGR

It surprised me as well when I first ran across it! It's a fascinating and expensive step along the way to flash cards.

LGR

Yeah I certainly can't see this being a dedicated series, but just another type of tech to cover every so often

LGR

Nah I have more than enough stuff to cover, but thanks for the offer!

LGR

Excellent. Those kinds of feelings are what I aim to bring back :)

LGR

Awesome, I hope to do more!

LGR

I ran across several reviews from the mid-90s comparing this to the QV-10 series. Seems that many preferred the higher res and lower price over the LCD viewfinder!

Hi Clint! Since you just reviewed an Epson camera, will you be interested taking another look at another super interesting Epson camera? I have an Epson R-D1 from 2004, which could be considered the first interchangeable lens mirrorless camera ever made. I am more than pleased to lend you the camera for a review with a couple of lenses if you are interested!

Absolutely love it! Photography and video are a huge part of my business and I remember using early digital cameras as well as film point-and-shoots. Please do more!

The photos remind me of some of the pics mum has laying round the house in photo albums (yeah back when people had those) that noisy washed out look always brings back happy memories. Cool man, love your stuff, this is my jam.

The 8-Bit Guy

Looks a heck of a lot better than my first digital camera, the Casio QV-10a. While the Casio had a color LCD viewfinder, it was 320x240 resolution max.

ReeseRiverson

That's just pure awesome. Just about makes me want one to try on my 486 with Windows 3.1, even. Haha

TempleTurkey

that said the image quality is still good if you use decent lenses and good lighting. Too bad it has so many dead pixels :(

I enjoyed it. And it's not that far off of your normal stuff. I think most of us remember tinkering with early digital cameras in some form and it's also an integral aspect of that era of computing, in my opinion. I wouldn't start, like, a whole new "digital camera series" necessarily, but if there are some other interesting samples with their unique special quirks of the era it'd definitely make another interesting episode. Also it's your channel, not mine, so. :)

TempleTurkey

My first digital camera was a Pentax ist D, man that was fun to shoot also looking back the low light of those early cameras where pretty bad haha.

Steve Skafte

This is fascinating for me to see! My first camera (really my father's) was the Epson PhotoPC 3000Z, with a whopping 3.3 megapixels. I used it from 2000 to 2007, until I got my first Canon. It was every bit as slow on the savetimes, you really had to think ahead for "action shots". It also shot terrible 30 second Quicktime videos, I've actually still got a couple. Now that I make a living as a photographer (my Patreon has a bunch of my current work), I'm a little nostalgic about old cameras. Even more so than gaming, since I'm not a gamer anymore (hence why I sent you my old Lucasarts adventures last summer). Anyhow, thanks very much for this, Clint! It's one of the happiest your videos have ever made me. Much appreciated!

Devon the Rogue Supreme

The oldest camera we had was a Canon that used compact flash cards. It’s surprising to me that a digital camera even predates self-contained removable flash memory, especially smart media cards.

Jacek Grzondziel

Absolutely agree on the special aesthetics of early digital cameras! Great episode!

Gary Leigh

I guess you could say that USB is a serial killer.

Kris Asick

I find it curious that quadrupling the pixel count only halves the storage space. I have to wonder if it's using more compression with higher resolution to compensate. :B

David Pruitt

Oh man those pictures you took bring back a sense of nostalgia. The grainy, noisy look of the photos combined with the locations (seriously seeing that old Ingles logo made me feel like I was a kid in 1990 being forced to go grocery shopping) made me feel like a kid again. Thanks Clint, I needed that.

avfusion

Imagine getting this and carrying it around in your favorite acid wash jeans.

John Covil

And speaking of taking pictures of old things: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimaster/30256529034/in/album-72157672698796924/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimaster/30256529034/in/album-72157672698796924/</a> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimaster/35677555174/in/album-72157684775617231/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimaster/35677555174/in/album-72157684775617231/</a> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimaster/32879035913/in/album-72157678522702984/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimaster/32879035913/in/album-72157678522702984/</a>

John Covil

Speaking of old-timey pictures, when your local shop isn't great at developing film, and you're at a high elevation to accentuate the blue-cast of Ektar100, you're also left wondering: just when _was_ this photo taken? <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimaster/30772371972/in/album-72157672698796924/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimaster/30772371972/in/album-72157672698796924/</a> BTW, I love the idea of doing more on cameras.

John Covil

I'm surprised it even _had_ a filter thread. Was that ever really a thing on those old point-and-shoots? Always thought of that with higher-end cameras.

LGR

And I'd like to make more if this goes over well!

Chris Munch

We had an early digital camera my AV class in high school in 1992. Going by memory here, but the way I recall it it was huge, only a bit smaller than a lunch box and I think it only did 320x240 images. I used it to make a stop motion movie project called Seymour Hinney, very original indeed - it was about a talking toilet and that's all I remember about it, unfortunately I do not have a copy of it. Also I used the camera to take pictures of girls behinds since no one knew what it was since it didn't look like a camera.

Keiron Wedlin

Very interesting camera, would love to see more camera reviews.

LGR

You're quite welcome!

LGR

You bet, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

LGR

Of the PhotoPC? As mentioned in the video it's the first of its kind, so I'd be curious to see that

aetherspoon

Oooo, I had an Epson digital camera! Newer than that one though, it had a CF card.

Tktagmedia

I remember an earlier model of this reviewed by Richard Hart on CNET Central.

Troy Wilkins

This was utterly fantastic, I enjoyed it thoroughly, well done good sir and thank you for the entertainment!

Justin Dotson

Man I never thought I'd be impressed by a digital camera from the mid 90s.

Jason Dupree

J.R. Williams

Hardware LGR is my favorite LGR

LGR

Happy to hear it!

LGR

90s memory prices never cease to astound

LGR

Yeah I've had a few in the pipeline :)

Retail Archaeology

Dude another new video? You're a machine!

Brandon Mingo

I like it!

The Enforcer

There's something charming about that mid 90s photo look that I love. It's not quite modern, but not quite retro. And $600 for an extra 4MB of memory? Even for something that was hi tech at the time, that price screams "no bueno".