How far we have come.

[Steve W]

I read the specs for the current crop of DSLR’s and ML’s and then look back to 1997 when we were still shooting film and digital cameras were things like the Sony mavica MVC-FD5 at a whopping 1.4 MP. No dual card slots here....all recording was the 3.5” floppy disc. Some of the younger among you may never have even seen a floppy.
In around 25 years we have evolved from very limited, basic devices to technological masterpieces.

 

[Charles Loy]

My first Nikon digital was the D1, whopping 2.74 MP, ripped off 4 FPS. Rugged camera and similar in looks to the current D6 I own.

 

[bleirer]

In had an Epson that shot 640x480 pixel images. Was totally amazed that the trip to the MotoPhoto booth in the mall parking lot was eliminated.

 

[Icarus]

Cameras today, both DSLRs and ML are beyond my wildest dreams!

 

[DRwyoming]

My first Nikon digital was the D1, whopping 2.74 MP, ripped off 4 FPS. Rugged camera and similar in looks to the current D6 I own.

Pretty much the same here, I made the move to digital with a used D1H and captured many images with it that I'm still happy with today.

But yeah, to the OP's point it's pretty amazing how far cameras have come in roughly two decades.

 

[Rassie]

I read the specs for the current crop of DSLR’s and ML’s and then look back to 1997 when we were still shooting film and digital cameras were things like the Sony mavica MVC-FD5 at a whopping 1.4 MP. No dual card slots here....all recording was the 3.5” floppy disc. Some of the younger among you may never have even seen a floppy.
In around 25 years we have evolved from very limited, basic devices to technological masterpieces.

Yeah, I traveled a lot for work across eastern Canada in the early 2000's, Mavica in hand. I was new to Canada then and this camera documented a lot of what I saw in my new country.

 

[ronpier]

It was the D50 that got me to stop shooting film. Thank God!! 6.1mp , 2.5 fps and up to 2 gb sd card storage.

 

[JANuser]

Moving from a Ricoh film body, that was basically a fancy throw away 35mm kit, to my first digital that was a 2.0MP Kodak point and shoot in 2005 was a nice change in and of itself. First DSLR was a D80, and we sure have come a long way since then.

 

[Roy]

I read the specs for the current crop of DSLR’s and ML’s and then look back to 1997 when we were still shooting film and digital cameras were things like the Sony mavica MVC-FD5 at a whopping 1.4 MP. No dual card slots here....all recording was the 3.5” floppy disc. Some of the younger among you may never have even seen a floppy.
In around 25 years we have evolved from very limited, basic devices to technological masterpieces.

You should see the looks on millennials when I show them a 5¼ or 8 inch floppy.
Any camera these days is pretty capable in most situations.

 

[MikeJ]

Found this on an old hard drive recently, think it's pretty accurate!

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[Ltgk20]

Every now and again I pull out my Minolta Maxxum 7000 and experience state of the art autofocus from 1986.

 

[Whiskeyman]

What got me into the digital world was a vacation that included over $500 in film and processing costs, and a heartbroken eight-year-old who shot one roll of film with exactly zero photos of what he wanted. Before the trip, my wife said we couldn't afford a DSLR; afterwards, she pushed me to get one, and that one was a D90. We still own it!

What about the original Kodak DCSs with their 1.3 Mega-pixel (sometimes referred to as the mega-blob) sensors? If I remember right, that camera was heavy!

 

[Roy]

What got me into the digital world was a vacation that included over $500 in film and processing costs, and a heartbroken eight-year-old who shot one roll of film with exactly zero photos of what he wanted. Before the trip, my wife said we couldn't afford a DSLR; afterwards, she pushed me to get one, and that one was a D90. We still own it!

What about the original Kodak DCSs with their 1.3 Mega-pixel (sometimes referred to as the mega-blob) sensors? If I remember right, that camera was heavy!

The Nikon D90 was the first DSLR with video.
$500 should at least cover a couple of rolls theses days...