Vivitar DIGI35 (2000)

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Another hybrid camera. This time from Vivitar. An OEM model made in China. The camera itself was manufactured by Farsharp Industrial Corp. and announced by them in 2001 as the model D-35 and first shown at the PMA 2001. The world's first DSC with 35mm harcopy output. The camera had an extremely low QVGA resolution which was pre-1997 standard. The camera would also take regular 35mm films. The other peculiar thing was that when you took a picture, both lenses would open and close at the same time. Means you would have a small QVGA resolution picture for emails and the same image for prints. Since the camera had no external storage slot the images could only be transferred via USB.

The camers could also be used (no joke here) for Net Meetings when it was attached to a computer and the Hybrid Cam Manager software was running. The front bottom of the camera featured 5 LEDs which would alternatively blink red and green every time a picture was taken. The red-eye reduction feature consisted of a clear LED between the flash and the 35mm lens. The manual was only a 4 page instruction leaflet. In the box there was also a cheap vinyl bag.

The camera itself was bulky and resembled an early, cheap 35mm camera. The "highlights" were self-timer, internal flash strobe with several flash modes, red-eye reduction, automatic film transport, automatic film rewind, status LCD and delete functions for the digital storage. I take it from the low serial number that only few of these were ever sold. My serial number is D00001192.