Sony DSC-F55 (1999)

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Announced by Sony on 1999-01-28, manufactured in 1998. The big brother of the Sony DSC-F3. It was the first Sony digital camera that worked exclusively with the Sony Memory Stick and also the first one to receive a Carl Zeiss lens. The camera had a swivel lens, built-in flash, MPEG recording mode, built-in speakers for movie playback, slide show function, self-timer and well, all the basic recording and playback functions of any decent Sony digital still camera at that time. I must admit that Sony wasn't around to play then but to dominate the market and they delivered some very fine innovative products.

 

This camera is known under various names and versions as Sony made some upgrades and a limited edition:

 

DSC-F55     -  1999 basic model / european model name
DSC-F55K   -  1999 japanese model name / limited black version
DSC-F55V   -  2000 upgraded model, added 3.34MP CCD and MPEG function
DSC-F55DX - 2001 upgraded model, with i-jump service functionality and new DSP

 

The camera model was called DSC-F55K in Japan and DSC-F55 elsewhere. A rare black version also exists of this camera and is limited to 10,000 units. It is featured above.

 

For whatever reason Sony upgraded this model twice, in 2000 and 2001 and called it DSC-F55V and DSC-F55DX. The sensor was replaced with a 3.34 megapixel CCD, MPEG functionality was added and in the DX version they implemented the i-jump service. The i-jump service enabled the user to take pictures and convert them to GIF files so they could be sent by mobile phone. Also a new 12bit DXP image processor was added. The upgraded models were only marketed in Japan.