Digital classics
Early digital cameras that once cost up to £900 are now available on eBay for less than £20. For users, they provide an inexpensive way to shoot quality digital images. For collectors, they make a cheap way to learn about digital-camera history. (For info, any dollar-to-pound exchange rates quoted are approximate for the appropriate years.)
The history
The first digital camera was the brainchild of American scientist and electrical engineer Steven Sasson, who joined American company Eastman Kodak in 1973. A few years earlier, in 1969, the charge coupled device (CCD) had been conceived by physicists Willard Boyle and George E Smith at Bell Labs in America. In 1975, Sasson utilised that technology to build an electronic camera that used a CCD in place of film.
With six circuit boards, 16 nickel cadmium batteries, an
