2026-05-08 A Series of Three Kodak Digital Science Cameras

Lately Kodak Digital Science cameras have been showing up. Within a single month I found three: one at my local thrift store, one at a Value Village and one at a Camera store. They varied in price from $1 to $6.50.

They are—from top—:

A Kodak Digital Science DC200—fixed focus 37mm equivalent
A Kodak DC4800 Zoom—zooms 3X
A Kodak EasyShare DX4900—zooms 2X

The back view—in the same order— shows the screen sizes aren’t changing radically. The displays are though, the earliest has colourful almost cartoons while later displays get more and more detailed.
What does change is the battery power needed to run these early cameras. The top one takes four AA batteries and almost runs down as you look at the screen (it is recommended to not stare at for more than 10-seconds!). The middle one has a proprietary rechargeable battery good for maybe 100 shots. Note all three cameras have optical viewfinders so having to use the back screens is optional.

In the same order the cameras vary in thickness. The DC4800—the middle one—has that tower holding the zoom and actually gets slightly thicker when the zoom is erected.
The cameras weigh (without batteries)—

DC200— 291 g (10.34 oz)
DC4800— 339 g (12.03 oz)
DX 4900— 219 g ( 7.76 oz)

Note the sudden weight loss over the models. Adding four AA batteries to the first camera and only two AA batteries to the last adds to the changing weight.
All the cameras use Compact Flash cards (in pretty much the same slot/release button arrangement).

The first camera—the DC200—has a “Megapixel” sensor (1151x864 = 995,328 pixels).
The middle camera—the DC4800—has a 3.1 Megapixel sensor.
The bottom camera—DX4900—has a 4 Megapixels sensor.

All cameras will be blogged about individually.

Comments

2026-03-14 - History and Evolution of the Kodak Logo

While working as a junior clerk at the Rochester Savings Bank, George Eastman first began commercial production of dry photographic plates in a rented loft of a building in Rochester, New York in April 1880. In the next few years, Eastman became very successful and expanded the company several times. His company started as the Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1881, later became the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company in 1884, and soon after the Eastman Company in 1889. The last name change occurred in 1892, when the Eastman Kodak Company of New York was organized. The company has been called Eastman Kodak Company ever since. The word "Kodak" was first registered as a trademark in 1888. The letter “K” had been a favorite of Eastman’s, he is quoted as saying, "I devised the name myself. The letter 'K' had been a favorite with me; it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made word...

2026-03-20-Manfrotto monopods

Sometimes collecting is a matter of persistence. The Manfrotto “GRUPPO” 434SSB monopod (shown top) showed up one day at my local thrift store. They had a price tag of $25 on it. I had bought the lower Manfrotto Compact MMC3-01 monopod at the same thrift store for $3. So I asked, “Why so much?” They answered their “expert” had found it sold for $200 on the internet. I find experts—who almost never clerk in the thrift store, so are unreachable—hard to deal with. There is also the matter someone might actually pay them $25 for a 2.27 kg (5 pound) aluminum pole, so I decided to let the Gods-of-Collecting decide if I was going to ever own it. For weeks I would pick it up, check the price tag to see if they had come to their senses, and return it to the shelf. I did try various clerks to see if they would lower the price, but they said they were not authorized to change prices. I plodded on, week after week without much hope. ...

2026-03-25 The Kiron 70-150 mm F/4

This Kiron 70-150 mm f/4 Macro1:4MC zoom was made by Kino Precision, Japan in 1980. The same company made both 1.5x and 2x extenders for this lens. It is a lovely design featuring a 52 mm filter size —common to many normal lenses—and a constant f/4 at all zoom positions. The f/stops are full stops from f/4 to f/5.6 and from f/16 to f/22 while the other apertures are half stops apart. FOCAL LENGTH RANGE: 70mm - 150mm [2.1X zoom ratio] DIAGONAL ANGLE OF VIEW: 34.3° @ 70mm - 16.4° @ 150mm LENS CONSTRUCTION: 13 elements in 9 groups WEIGHT (Olympus OM Mount): 460 g (with hood, front and rear caps) The macro range sets in below the three foot (0.9 m) marked distance at all zoom positions but you only get to the minimum 1:4 ratio at 150 mm. Macro starts around a 1:8 macro range at 70 mm. This is the only lens I have ever collected that has the original price sticker on the rear cap. At least I assume it is the original price sticker… It ha...

Edmonton Photographic Historical Society

Search This Blog