It is easy to look at modern digital cameras and forget just how spoiled we really are. After all, the latest generation of cameras make it almost impossible to miss the shot. Even a decade ago, digital cameras were far less capable, and if you turn back the clock three decades, digital models had barely just come into existence. This fun retro review takes a look at one such camera, the Apple Quicktake 100.
Coming to you from Dino Bytes by Gordon Laing, this neat review takes a look at the Apple Quicktake 100 digital camera. First released in 1994, the Quicktake 100 almost looks more like a pair of binoculars, and while that might seem out of place now, back then, the form factor of digital cameras was hardly standardized. The Quicktake 100 could take up to 32 320x240 images (0.08 megapixels) or 8 high-resolution 640x480 photos (0.31 megapixels). It came with a 50mm-equivalent f/2 lens and allowed shutter speeds between 1/30 and 1/175 s. It was powered by three AA batteries. As novel as digital cameras were in 1994, the Quicktake 100 did not really catch on, leading to Steve Jobs to kill it when he returned to the company. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Laing.
This was almost my first digital camera! To paraphrase Bill Gates, 320 x 240 pixels should be enough for anyone!
Can't really claim it was *my* digital camera, but when I worked in Tektronix Research Laboratories, we'd pry the lids off of DRAM and focus images on them, then read them out and display them — some 20 years before the Apple QuickTake.