Apple

Apple Quicktake 100 (1994)

You can trust Apple to be a leader in both technology and industrial design – and so it is with this beautiful product. The Quicktake 100 was borne out of a co-operative project between Kodak and Apple. But while the former was lumbering and indecisive at the start of the digital era, Apple borrowed a sensor from Kodak's DCS 200, developed the electronics and bodywork around it and, hey presto, announced the Quicktake 100 in February 1994.

Apple had decided to target its first digital camera for the mass market. It also wanted the camera to connect to its famous Macintosh computers to download and manipulate the photos. Hence, the Quicktake 100 is what one historian describes as the "first truly affordable digital camera that could be easily connected to a computer". The price in America was about US$750.

Not long after introducing this revolutionary 0.3 megapixel camera, Apple abandoned the camera business. It wasn't until the advent of iPhone 1 in 2007, that you could once again take a photo on a portable Apple device. Note also that the Quicktake 100 had Apple's original rainbow logo that was phased out in 1998.

The Quicktake 100 was a beautiful camera — beautiful to hold and beautiful to behold. It has an optical viewfinder, an LCD status screen, a fast f/2.8 lens and a 1/30 to 1/750sec shutter range. Mine is shown with a close-up lens that fits across the full frontage of the camera and an original, beautifully printed instruction manual.