Banking

NikonWeb printed a really intriguing interview with Kodak's direct engineer James McGarvey on the here early Nikon-dependent Kodak DCS cameras:

Q: The Electro-Optic Camera - the World's initial DSLR - was developed and built for a US govt consumer. The consumer preferred Canon cameras, so you built it close to a Canon F-one physique. Later on, when you determined to make your first industrial design, you employed a Nikon F3 entire body rather. Why?

A: Nikon and Canon were close competition and both was a viable decision for a specialist electronic digital camera. The Canon choice was particular to that 1st client, but the US Gov't. consumers much more usually preferred Nikon, so we utilised the F3 human body on the Hawkeye II cameras, before the DCS. For the DCS, the option was also straightforward, as newspaper photographers have been the envisioned key market place and Nikon held a strong direct there, at minimum in the US. I imagine we considered that Canon may have a slight edge in Europe, but we expected to market far more systems in the US at first.

...

Q: Did you in any way cooperate with Nikon on the advancement of the Kodak DCS? Was Nikon even informed of your task?

A: No and no. I imagine they had been stunned when we introduced the DCS. We bought F3's through regular dealers (I will not remember who), and since the quantity was modest ahead of the product start, I question if Nikon was alerted to anything at all ahead of time. I don't forget that we had been packing the F3 back door in the package with the DCS, given that we had it and a person may possibly want to use the entire body with movie at some position. Nikon advised us we could not do that as we have been not an authorized dealer. We could integrate the F3 in our solution, of course, but not "resell" cameras! Usually, however, I think Nikon was satisfied with the circumstance, since they ended up offering F3's and the very first industrial electronic digital camera was carrying their lens mount. I will not don't forget any criticism other than the door concern.

Added pictures:

Electro Optical Digital camera, the World's initial DSLR

Kodak DCS digicam with its Digital Storage Unit (DSU)

F3 dependent Kodak DCS (1991) and Nikon F4 (1988)

The Hawkeye II Built-in Imaging Accessory

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