Kodak DCS 460 (1995)

< Prev Next >

The Kodak DCS 460 was the flagship of the Kodak DCS 4xx series and sported a 6MP sensor. The SLR body again was a Nikon N90 / N90s or F90 / F90x. The camera (like other Kodak DCS cameras) was pretty expensive, around $28K (in comparison the DCS 410 only cost $7K). Then again the DCS 460 had the densest and best imaging sensor available at that time, the Kodak M6 sensor. The camera could be hooked up by SCSI cable directly to a computer.

The camera featured continuous shooting at 1 frame every 1.7 seconds and up to 2 images (then you had to wait ten seconds to reset). A regular picture would take 12 seconds to be stored on the card. Recorded TIFF images decompressed to 18MB of storage space! There is a nice anecdote from Jim McGarvey who said that there was a problem with charging the battery and it became the only DCS safety recall ever (in fact one camera even exploded at a customers studio)! 

The DSLR was available in a variety of models:

DCS 460c
DCS 460IR
DCS 460c P/S
DCS 460m

I can also highly recommend the invaluable website of Timm Chapman. He is a passionate and dedicated photographer with indepth knowledge of NASA modified cameras. So please check his entry about the NASA Kodak DCS 460.

Over 5,000 of the DCS 4xx series were produced and it became the best selling of the entire DCS series.

All images © digitalkameramuseum.de