Kodak EOS DCS 5 (1995)

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After having launched several DSLR cameras with Nikon, Canon came knocking on Kodak's door. They wanted to see how their analog SLR cameras would work with a digital back. Kodak took the DCS 4x design but built a new breadboard especially for this model. The camera was introduced in late 1995.

For storing media, a PCMCIA type III card was recommended. However, a PCMCIA type II card worked also, as well as a PCMCIA adapter with a Compact Flash card. This makes handling the images much easier today. Funny sidenote: since PCMCIA type III harddrive cards were fairly new, the manual actually advised the customer "not to be startled" by noise coming from the card drive.

More features were the possibility to take 10-shot bursts, these shots were stored in the internal 16MB DRAM. Audio clips could be recorded and stored as WAV files. Improved CCD circuitry reduced noise and improved ISO. This improved technology was adopted into the Kodak AP NC2000e a year later by the way.

Taking the entire camera apart reveals something interesting. One of the big advantages of the Kodak DCS 4xx series was the possibility to replace the Nikon SLR. The EOS-1n however could not so easily be replaced. The top part of the EOS was connected to the digital back by cable. Another huge bonus was that the EOS did not have to be powered by batteries anymore, instead it was powered up by the DCS internal battery. Three versions were marketed, C, IR and M (C for color, IR for infra-red and M for monochrome).

Canon sold the models 1 and 3 only. Roughly a 1,000 units were produced.