Reviving Kodak DCS 520C

Wikipedia: Kodak DCS
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Kodak DSC 520 (Canon D2000) was introduced in 1998 at MSRP around $16,500 (according to DigiCam History Dot Com). Today you can find it on eBay for about $250 or less. The camera is based on professional Canon EOS-1N body and Kodak 2 million pixel CCD. As per Phil Askeys' excellent review  (1999) it was "Most, Hugely, Very, Highly recommended. The best image quality, high resolution, colour and gray balance. A "reference camera". There were several versions produced including colour, monochrome and infrared (to be confirmed).  *Update: Kodak DCS 520 was produced as colour only (520C), no other variants.
When couple weeks ago I saw Kodak DCS 520C on eBay for $199 I just grabbed it:)
The package included camera body (in almost mint condition with less than 1500 actuation), battery and camera AC adapter.

I was extremely excited to find out how this, one of the first professional DSLR, performs and took it for a test. But...

Picture of the day (2012-08-26)

Man in the hat.

I am still working on my "non scientific" review of some old Kodak digital cameras. But I couldn't resist to publish this one ahead of time.

Kodak DCS 520C, Canon 70-200 1:4 L

This shot was taken just before dawn, at ISO 200.

Thanks,
vkphoto

Digital history (Kodak DCS 420 & 520)

I was always wondering how first digital images were looked like. Recently I had a chance to acquire  Kodak DCS 420 (circa 1994) and Kodak DCS 520 (circa 1998). Both are one of the first professional digital cameras. DCS 420 is using Nikon N90S camera body and DCS 520 is based on Canon EOS 1N. It took some time, efforts and additional parts to revive them and get some meaningful output results. Here it goes.

Picture of the day (2012-08-10)

NEX-F3 + Tessar 135mm 1:6.3 (circa 1910), hack details are here.

Thanks,
vk

Canon 5D MII + Nikkor AI-S 105mm 1:2.5 (and adapter)

I tested Nikon to Canon adapter tonight that came " for free" as a compliment with my other order. It's called "Big is Ai-Eos Adapter" and has focus confirmation chip on it.

Actually I was pleasantly surprised that it works and focus confirmation is spot on, even with aperture wide opened.