KingJim DaVinci DV55 (1990)

As mentioned in the history section, this camera was launched in 1990. Making it one of the first digital cameras that were commercially available. It won a Good Design Award in 1990. The image taken by the MOS sensor is stored in a buffer, then printed as a thumbnail to see if it suits you, then you could either re-take the picture or print it in full-size (took up to two minutes). So instead of a LCD screen for directly viewing a recorded image one had the thumbnail print preview feature (took up to 30s). The camera uses 63mm thermal fax paper rolls and was very battery consuming. You had to feed it 8 AA-size batteries, also it was a real pain to get the battery compartment cover lid on and off without breaking something. A rectangular piece of metal on the side of the camera served as a viewfinder substitute! Also the print-outs weren't meant for eternity as they would bleach out and vanish over time (just like early cash register receipts).

This camera was a very cool gadget for it's time. It was also capable to take effect shots like negative images, posterized, digitized, outlined, fine quality, paint images and it could zoom. A vey rare macro lens adapter (DV5M) was also available and would allow to take images as close as 30cm.

A very rare white version was also available, maybe only in Japan.

Thanks to Andrew for the very rare and ONLY picture in the world of the DV5M macro lens!