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Casio QV-10, the first consumer LCD digital camera, lauded as 'essential' to tech history

Casio QV-10, the first consumer LCD digital camera, lauded as 'essential' to tech history

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Casio's QV-10, the first consumer-grade LCD digital camera, has been awarded the status of "Essential Historical Material for Science and Technology" by Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science.

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casio qv-10
casio qv-10

You might not be familiar with Casio's QV-10, but it was a revolutionary product back in 1995 — the world's first consumer-grade digital camera to come with an LCD for previewing and viewing images. Now, to recognize the contribution the QV-10 made to the rise in popularity of digital photography, Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science has given it the status of "Essential Historical Material for Science and Technology." It's the third Casio product to receive the accreditation after the Mini electronic calculator and the prototype DC-90 digital camera.

The 250-kilopixel QV-10 cost ¥65,000 upon its release ($833 in today's money, or enough to buy a Nikon D3200 in Japan today), a breakthrough price at the time which helped it achieve wide success. Though digital cameras in the 90s couldn't come close to their film-based counterparts in terms of image quality, the 1.8-inch color display marked the first time people were able to view and delete their photos on the go. Groundbreaking as it was, however, it didn't necessarily go down well with everyone at the time — read this review from 1996 for image samples and impressions.