Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n

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Gallery

Rollei Planar 80mm F2.8 F-Mount / SAMYANG 35mm F1.4 / Tamron MF 50mm(52B)

Review

The Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n is a digital camera based on Nikon’s F80 film camera.
The mechanical parts such as the viewfinder and mirror are F80, and the grip and the bottom of the body are packed with digital circuits. As a result, the camera’s grip area is too thick and bulges, and the weight balance is not very good.
The camera alone weighs 1 kg, so if you attach a lens, it will be quite heavy. The sensor is a 35mm full-frame sensor jointly developed by Kodak and Belgium’s Phil Factory, with 13.5 million pixels (4500×3000 pixels).

As of 2022, this is the last KODAK digital single-lens reflex camera released. The “/n” in the camera name DCS Pro SLR/n indicates that it uses Nikon F mount. There is also a SIGMA camera-based CANON EF mount version with “/c” in the product name, but I have never seen it on the used market.

Since this is a digital camera equipped with an initial 35mm sensor, noise is already noticeable in dark places from ISO 320. This may be a limitation of sensor technology in 2004, but as someone who used ISO400 film in a film camera, I feel that this amount of noise is normal at ISO320.

ISO160 can certainly produce clear images, but it depends on the lens you use, and you’ll want to use a high-performance lens. Since there is no low-pass filter in front of the sensor, false colors may appear depending on the subject. The gallery also posted photos taken at ISO320 while walking around Kyoto at night.
I didn’t have an F-mount AF lens, so I used it only in MF mode, but the viewfinder inherited from the F80 is easy to see and allows for accurate focusing. Although it felt a little heavy, it was a camera that could take around 100 shots with one battery and was more than mobile enough for outdoor use.

I investigated the differences from the previous model DCS Pro 14/n, but there are almost no differences. DCS Pro SLR/n is said to have mainly internal improvements over DCS Pro 14/n. Typical items included improvements to the power supply and increased buffer memory (256MB > 512MB).
Since it is a professional camera and is expensive, it seems that a functional upgrade has been implemented for the DCS Pro 14/n, and with the update, there is also a DCS Pro 14/n that has the same performance as the DCS Pro SLR/n.

Kodak released a digital camera equipped with a 35mm full frame sensor, albeit based on a Nikon body, at a time when it was said that it would be difficult to use the F mount with a 35mm full frame sensor, which is proof of its technological prowess. It is a shame that the company could not survive even with all its technical capabilities. The brand is still alive and well, but it is unclear how much of the past accumulation remains. There are some reprints of reversal films, so perhaps that DNA is still alive.

Speaking of F80-based digital cameras, Fuji Film’s FinePix S3pro also falls under this category, but since this is aimed at consumers and focuses on retail price, it has the disadvantage of having an APS-C sensor and a 1.5x lens focal length.

I owned the DCS Pro SLR/n from 2012 to 2013, and I got it used 8 years after it went on sale.
The 13.5 megapixel resolution is still sufficient even in 2022, and although I sold it for a fortune when I was short on money, it’s still one of the cameras I wish I’d kept on hand.

Specification

Item	Value	Note
Number of pixels (Megapixcel)	13.5
Mount	Nikon F mount
Image Sensor	36mm × 24mm FullFrame CMOS sensor
Finder	Eye Level Pentaprism	Approx. 92% (vs. actual screen) Approx. 0.75x (with 50mm lens at infinity and -1.0Dp)
Back LCD Panel	2 inches, 130,000 dots
Memory card	Compact flash	Supports up to 32GB
Battery-type	DCS Pro Battery、P/N 4E2843	Common to DCS Pro14/n
Camera size(mm)	W x H x D 158 × 131 × 89
Weight(g)	907	Only body