I got my first digital camera in July of1998. A Sony FD-7 with a whopping 640×480 resolution. It saved the images on its internal 3.5″ floppy drive which was convenient. It had a fairly decent 10X zoom lens and built-in flash. Unfortunately the internal flash was really over-powered and I had to mask off part of it to prevent over-exposures.
By May of 1999 I was ready for a step up. I still liked the idea of storage on floppy disks so I got a Sony FD-91. It had a image size of 1024×768 and an image stabilized 14X zoom lens. Though larger and heavier than the FD-7, I was pleased with the extra resolution. Also the internal flash seemed better matched to the camera.
A couple years later the itch for bigger and better hit again. In 2001 I bought a Sony CD-1000 camera. The main feature of it was the internal mini-CD drive. That allowed storing over 150, 1600×1200 images on an 8cm diameter mini CD-R. With its 10X optical zoom lens and image stabilization, this was one sweet camera. Great for nature photography and it did a fair job in low light situations.
The CD-1000 satisfied my needs for quite a while but by October 2004 I was ready for another step up. This time I forsook Sony for a Panasonic DMC-FZ20. This had a 5 mega-pixels (2560×1920) sensor, a 12X optical zoom image stabalized lens and used SD flash memory for storage. In addition it was smaller and lighter than either the CD-1000 or the FD-91.
Finally this October I made the step up to the Nikon D80. It has a 10 mega-pixel (3872×2592) sensor. Being a digital SLR, lenses are interchangeable. Initially I got the kit 18-135mm zoom lens but I’m sure I will be getting additional lenses over time.
Just for fun I’ve plotted a graph of my personal “Megapixel Race”.
And the improvement of picture quality with each progressive camera purchase has been quite clear. However, I still think you are a man with too many toys on hand 🙂
Based on that graph, you will have a camera with infinite megapixels sometime in 2012. The Mayan calendar says the world will end in 2012, I think that is more than a coincidence…
That is quite a bit of progression Tom! It sounds pretty farmiliar to me with my history of increasing megapixel digitals. But, the main difference is that you have actually owned the best of the best over time 🙂 at least IMHO.
My first was an inexpensive small camera and the second, later water damaged, was the one I took the Mt. Rushmore photos with. The entire time, I had been the proud owner of a Pentax 35mm, but with the cost of film and processing since I lost my Photo Lab has been prohibitive.
I like the one I have now which is the Cannon S2 IS which I have to thank both you and Mike for leading me to. 🙂
I’m not sure if I’d say I owned “the best of the best” but I did keep stepping up as I discovered more about what I wanted. I also have a couple of old 35mm film cameras that I really liked but once digital came along I never looked back.
That Canon S2 IS is a very nice camera. Image stabilization is the one thing I miss with my new camera. Eventually I’ll get a lens with IS (or AS as Nikon calls it).