View all of Kodak's original DCS webpages, from 1994 on

Discuss older Nikon-based Kodak digital SLRs, including DCS 100, DCS 200, NC2000, DCS 400/600/700-series, etc. Ask questions, post general comments, anecdotes, reviews and user tips.
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ondebanks
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View all of Kodak's original DCS webpages, from 1994 on

Post by ondebanks »

I know that Ashley Pomeroy is a member here, and his blog was very interesting to me in researching the DCS cameras.
One of his links takes you to an instance of DCS information in "Wayback Machine", an internet archiver.
I was amazed to find that I could use this to explore nearly all of Kodak's DCS webpages from 1994 onwards. There were several generations/styles of the website, more or less in line with generations of the cameras, the priorities of Kodak the entity, and the increasing sophistication of the web.

Perhaps it hasn't been publicized here yet...so it is now. :wink:

Try e.g. http://web.archive.org/web/199612262048 ... ndex.shtml
and explore from there - click on the links within a page, and on the timeline at the top to get different versions of the page. There is also a search engine.

I found stuff that I never found anywhere else. For example, all that mysterious stuff about serial ports, image transmission and GPS cards - there's actually some "how it works" detail!

Not everything works though - my hopes of finding older versions of the firmware sank when all the firmware links threw up errors. It seems that "fixed" webpages are archived fine, but "selective" ones (those which are tailored to something the user inputs) are not.

Ray
ronvol
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Re: View all of Kodak's original DCS webpages, from 1994 on

Post by ronvol »

That's a great link Ray.
Thanks for sharing.

Ron.
Stan Disbrow
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Re: View all of Kodak's original DCS webpages, from 1994 on

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Quite often, the archived pages are just the initial page. Sometimes, they store the major links on the initial page as well. Usually, you can't drill down more than a layer or two. Still, what is there is better than not having anything at all! :)

Stan
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Ashley_Pomeroy
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Re: View all of Kodak's original DCS webpages, from 1994 on

Post by Ashley_Pomeroy »

ondebanks wrote:I know that Ashley Pomeroy is a member here, and his blog was very interesting to me in researching the DCS cameras.
One of his links takes you to an instance of DCS information in "Wayback Machine", an internet archiver.
I was amazed to find that I could use this to explore nearly all of Kodak's DCS webpages from 1994 onwards. There were several generations/styles of the website, more or less in line with generations of the cameras, the priorities of Kodak the entity, and the increasing sophistication of the web.
I was dead chuffed with my amateur sleuthing - I was going over and rewriting (e.g. slashing) my old blog post about the Kodak DCS 460, rewriting it into English instead of the bizarre contractionless universal-speak I was aiming for at the time, dear God what was I thinking? (pause) And I decided to look through Google Books to see if there were any old magazine articles about Kodak DCS cameras, and I think I found something in Popular Science, or Popular Mechanics, circa 1998 that made reference to Kodak's website. I typed the URL into the Wayback Machine, and presto, the above.

There's a bit about a chap called Marc Bryan-Brown who used a DCS 420 to photograph parts of Arctic Siberia, which must have been tricky, and it doesn't say anything about charging the thing up:

"There was no option of wet film processing. (There are no labs in Arctic Siberia.) And there was no question to me that to use the DCS 420 was the most efficient and effective way to get the images back to the states while we were on the expedition. We wanted the images to appear in a timely fashion so they were relevant news and not just old stories."

I assume he took a laptop and some kind of car charger that could work with Russian trucks. Or something. Sadly the article doesn't seem to have any samples, certainly not full-size ones, although there's a zoom into a DCS 460 shot:
http://web.archive.org/web/199612270125 ... otes.shtml

It mentions the camera winning the 1995 Macuser Eddy away, although I can't find any record of this on the internet anywhere.

I then had a look for subsequent work by the photographers in question, but they've all moved on, understandably so given that fourteen years have passed. Bryan-Brown does still have the same photo of Lenin in his portfolio:
http://web.archive.org/web/199612271931 ... enin.shtml
http://www.bryan-brown.com/site/lifesty ... Lenin.html

Based on the borders it was shot on film, though. The site also has a profile of Gary Fong - doesn't seem to be the Gary Fong of cheap plastic tat fame, though, this appears to be a different, thinner Gary Fong. Some of the other Google books results were interesting, including one from Vibe magazine circa August 1997 which ends with:

"Digital cameras offer many great advantages over 35mm film and represent the future of photography - a flick through Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated will confirm this - but they won't completely replace the older technology. However antimodern, film allows shooters to connect with photography's tradition of craftsmanship in ways that slogging pixels around a screen cannot: rather like there are those who prefer the intimacy of a handwritten letter to the expediency of e-mail."

Which is a bit of a non-sequitur - digital photography created a whole new tradition of craftsmanship - but hey, it was 1997. I learn that a CCD is "a kind of digital sponge". The spooky thing for me is that, presumably, most of the photographs in that magazine were shot with film, and I can't imagine how hard that would have been; getting the exposure correct without any kind of digital aids, and then developing and scanning everything. It must have taken ages.
Stan Disbrow
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Re: View all of Kodak's original DCS webpages, from 1994 on

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Well, he could have opted for a simple regulator and that would have charged the battery from any voltage a Russian truck might employ except for 6 volts. On a 6v battery, just use a current limiting resistor and be done with it. Six volts won't get the camera battery all the way full, but will do 85% or so. ;)

Without a truck, one could use a solar panel about the size of two paperback books in that timeframe. Would have done well and you don't need anything by way of a circuit, either. A solar panel is 12v out and naturally current limited enough that a 7.2v NiCd pack won't overcharge. :)

Film exposure was done using a meter. Once one got used to a particular film, it was easy enough to get the exposure you wanted with the meter. Print film, anyway. Slide film was fussier and almost like shooting digital. Don't blow those highlights.

Darkroom processing was interesting and time consuming, though. Lots of steps, lots of chemicals, and lots of time required. I don't miss it. I did miss monochrome until I got the plug-in for Photoshop, now I don't even miss that. Give me a computer and leave the lights on! :P

Later!

Stan
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer
nausee
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Re: View all of Kodak's original DCS webpages, from 1994 on

Post by nausee »

Hi Stan,

I am interested to know which B&W photoshop plug-in you are using.

Frank.
Stan Disbrow
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Re: View all of Kodak's original DCS webpages, from 1994 on

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

The Imaging Factory's Convert to B/W Pro.

Later!

Stan
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer
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