Dycam Model 3 (1992)

From the earliest years of the digital photography era, the 1992 Dycam Model 3 is a true collector's treasure.

At just 0.18 megapixels, it was of limited use. After you pressed the shutter, it required 10 seconds to store the image in its 1mb internal memory. Oh, and the image was only in black and white.

But looking back over three decades, the Dycam Model 3 has emerged as a unique, pioneering achievement.

The Model 3 was sold with several options such as supplementary lenses and even a system which generates colour images.

Here is the brief brief history of the Dycam series of cameras. Model 1 appeared in 1990 with a 0.09 megapixel monochrome sensor and 1mb of internal storage, enough for 32 photographs. There was no Model 2. Model 3 came out in 1992, as did the 3XL variant which had internal memory of 4mb. Model 4 appeared in 1993. Its internal memory was 1mb but it had a colour CCD sensor. The 4XL variant appeared at the same time with 4mb of internal memory.

Dycam 10-C (1995)

Three years after bringing out its upright Model 3, the Dycam company joined the pile-on for binocular-shaped cameras.

The DC-10 came on the market in 1995. It’s visually identical to the Kodak DC50 Zoom which arrived the following year – except the body of the DC-10 is an attractive light grey with cyan writing, while the DC50 is a conventional black.

The camera has nice features including a zoom lens, 0.4 megapixel sensor and PC card external storage. But there was no LCD screen and the price was close on US$1,000. That was a lot of money at the time.