I recently posted a blog post about this at kyanmedia’s blog so I thought I’d post a more indepth review here.
I bought a Kodak DCS 520, also branded as the Canon D2000 off eBay recently, which is the 3rd DSLR released by canon in 1998 which is the model before the Canon 1d. The camera itself is 2mp, although there was a 6mp version the d6000 or DCS 560.
The 350d next to the DCS 520
The DCS 520 was £14,000(!) in 1998, with the DCS560 originally being £25,000 but reduced promptly to £12-14k. The DCS 520 was primarily marketed to photojournalists who required a higher FPS over resolution.
Image quality is great, albeit only at 2megapixels, the camera is great at low ISOs and can shoot at a rate of 3.5fps. The LCD is similar to an early colour mobile phone screen, seriously low resolution and poor colour reproduction. Interestingly there was also a Nikon dcs520, which didn’t feature a LCD display at all. The DCS range of cameras are actually film bodies by Canon (in the case, a EOS 1n) or Nikon, with digital backs added by Kodak, a partnership that ended with the DCS 560.
A Kodak released photo of the DCS 520
As for build quality and image quality it’s great, although the UI is very poor it can take a while to get accustomed, overall a nice bit of kit and an interesting bit of camera history.
Sample photos! (click for more on Flickr)
10 years on mega pixels later AND STILL using them
great workhorse 2meg pixels ? who cares !!
bruce
I started late in acquiring a dSLR camera ie a used DCS520 in 2005. Like it so much bought another DCS520 then a DCS560 and last year D2000. Slightly disappointed over the D2000 due to the software supported, otherwise IQ is just as the DCS520. Its 2009 and I am still happily shooting these giants that made history in their own rights, with the DCS560 hitting 180,000 actuation, I am guilty for 20k so far.
I bought a Canon D2000 in late 2008 – it was the same camera but with Canon branding. It didn’t have the bright red KODAK logo. I was pleasantly surprised, although it had problems with sunlight, which tended to turn magenta. In fact you can see this in the sample photograph, on the top-left corner. The sensor was very sensitive to infrared, and I found that it was hard to get consistent colour reproduction. Apart from that the image quality was great up to ISO 800, beyond which the blue channel fell apart, although the results were still usable in black and white. The pictures were very sharp (no antialiasing filter) and the body felt very tough. The interface was odd but quick, and after switching it on there was no delay between photographs. I can see the DCS 560 still being useful today as a kind of “pocket 1D” for daylight conditions, although they rarely come up on eBay. I’m not sure how the flash automation works, though, I never tried that out.
I picked up 3 DCS520′s and one DCS620. One of the 520′s was ‘broken’ for years – I had it fixed, as it had only 7k actuations. Lovely results for a 2mb sensor, but the battery life is terrible, even buying new batteries (expensive) didn’t improve much – the recharge lifetime is very short on these. In my view, the DCS 720 (Nikon) is better made than the Canon 620, but both are fine cameras – I just wish the battery life was better.