Fujifilm DS-250HD (1998)

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The Fuji DS-250HD (Heavy Duty) was also announced 1998-02-03, same day as the MX-700 (aka Finepix700). Although most people think that this was a digital camera, well, it wasn't. It was only a water- and dustproof, ruggedized case for the MX-700. Some versions of the DS-250HD were sold with the MX-700 inside and some only as a case. Anyway, the BigJob, as it was called, was one of the first ruggedized cameras available. It's design was great but made the MX-700 inside very large and bulky and somewhat difficult to handle. It was intended for construction sites, engineering and rough environments and officially sold as an outdoor business camera. It was the first camera to receive the JIS protection grade 7 grade which means that the entire camera was washable and pictures could be taken during rain but underwater shooting was impossible. The case could also be operated wearing gloves.

The case had a sort of hot shoe on top but this was not intended for an external flash but for a slide-on optical viewfinder!

Even today people are auctioning the DS-250HD case off as a digital camera (even without the camera).