Photos: The history of the digital camera

Connected cameras and CompactFlash
The first 'photo quality' desktop inkjet printer arrived in 1994. The Epson MJ-700V2C (pictured left) managed 720x720 dots per inch.

Later that year, the Olympus Deltis VC-1100 (pictured left) became the world's first digital camera with built-in transmission capabilities. With a modem connected, photos could be transmitted over phone lines -- even mobiles -- although it took about six minutes to transmit high-quality images. Image resolution was 768x576 pixels, the shutter speed could be set between 1/8 and 1/1000 second, and it included a colour LCD viewfinder.

SmartMedia card and CompactFlash cards also arrived that year. The first camera to use CompactFlash was the Kodak DC-25 (pictured right) in 1996.