Casio QV-10 (1994)

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The story of the Casio QV-10 is widely explored in the History section on this website. It was the first digital camera in the world with an LCD screen and announced by Casio on 1994-11-14! Be aware that for the first time in history an electronic still camera was available that would let you record and review the images right away, without the help of additional equipment. Unheard of! The camera would replace a 35mm camera and up to 4 rolls of film. So much has been written and said about this camera but since I always strife for something new to tell, I do have a bit of additional information. For this model Casio Japan marketed a special floppy disk drive (FD-10) and introduced it on 1995-10-20. One could connect the Casio QV-10 camera directly to this floppy disk drive and copy the content of the camera to a 3.5" floppy disk, without the use of a computer.

By selling the camera for around $799 it became an instant bestseller and sparked the digital camera boom. It had a macro switch, swivel lens, digital and video output and an LCD screen. The only bummers were the missing strobe and the camera not being suitable for landscape shootings. As you can see on my website, Casio had fabricated a skeleton version of the QV-10 for whatever reasons. The camera itself underwent some minor changes in soft- and firmware and was later released as B and C versions (see label underneath your Casio QV-10).

There is a lengthy anecdote in Popular Science magazine of June 1995 where the author was testing a prototype of the camera and a short-circuit in the camera had led to a 'fatal error' message that was replaced in later models with a 'memory error' message.

The QV-10 underwent several revisions while it was on the market. You can see it on the label at the bottom of the camera. It either says "model QV-10" or "model QV-10A, B, C or CIA".

Only available in Japan was a special Telescopic & Wide Angle Conversion Lens Set, called Casio LU-10. You can see it in the gallery above.