Self Portrait: 17 Years Of Digital Cameras

The Kodak/Nikon DCS 100 is considered to be the first commercially available DSLR. It had a 1.3-megapixel sensor. You can't see it here, but the camera's battery and 200MB hard drive are contained in a giant box.

The DCS 200 was released a year later, and had a self-contained battery pack.

The Kodak NC 2000 carried AP branding, and was marketed directly to photojournalists.

The Kodak DCS 420, based on a smaller Nikon N90 body.

Kodak DCS 460 took 6-megapixel photos, which were at the time considered massive.

The Fujix DS-515 was the first digital camera with a full-frame viewfinder.

The Agfa Actioncam used three different CCD sensors to take photos.

The Kodak AP NC 2000e Pro.

The Kodak DCS 5c

The Kodak DCS 520

The Kodak DCS-315

The Minolta RD3000's body is much, much deeper than this photo suggests.

The Nikon D1 is the first DSLR that was widely embraced by professional photographers. At just 2.7 megapixels, its photos would look fairly pixelated in a magazine spread.

The Kodak DCS-620X. Kodak stuck to making digital camera backs for other companies' bodies for a very long time — probably too long.

The Fujifilm FinePix S1.

The EOS D30 set the style for Canon DSLRs, which still look quite similar.

The Olympus E-10.

The Kodak DCS 760.

The Canon EOS D60.

The Nikon D100.

Sigma's first digital camera, the SD-9.

The Nikon D2H

The Nikon D2X.

The Nikon D200.

The Nikon D40.

The Panasonic Lumix G1 represents the next generation of DSLRs: smaller, prettier, and more accessible.