Epix Pro from 1996 Packed a Computer and Encryption into One Rare Camera

Few people today even know the Epix Pro existed, yet the chunky gray box from 1996 carried more computing muscle than most early digital cameras ever attempted. Released by a short-lived startup called Epix Imaging Systems, the same unit later appeared under the names Obsidian IC/100 and NEC PC-DC 401 after the company shifted labels a couple of times. Priced around two thousand dollars, it targeted insurance adjusters, police departments, and government offices that needed photos they could trust as evidence rather than as artistic statements.

Inside was a half-inch Sony CCD sensor with a resolution of roughly 0.3 megapixels, comparable to cameras of the period. What really set the hardware apart was the optical viewfinder, which used a beam splitter to deflect some of the light from the lens to your eye while sending the rest to the sensor. The mounts allowed standard c-mount lenses, a logical choice given the highly cropped sensor, which made even the most basic film camera lenses look like monster telephotos, so the design really played to the strengths of compact optics while yet achieving proper framing.

Storage was based on two internal PCMCIA slots that could be used to insert a 131MB Type 2 or 3 card capable of storing up to 1600 photos. That was powered by an Intel 486 processor, which was the same processor family used in desktop computers at the time. The software, on the other hand, allowed you to import your own custom resizing and compression settings from a computer, and a ‘film roll’ mode allowed you to group photos together based on custom parameters you’d previously set up on a computer. One of the more intriguing features was the ability to encrypt and watermark images in real time and then provide tools later on to check if the files had been tampered with, which was marketed as useful for situations where a photo might have to withstand scrutiny in a court of law or official document.

John Moon, a former vice president of Apple who had worked on some of the QuickTake cameras, started the company after leaving Cupertino with a clear vision of what he intended to accomplish. He and his team used off-the-shelf parts whenever possible and even collaborated with NEC to manufacture the devices. In the beginning, they planned to release more models, but sales simply did not materialize; by 1997, you could buy up residual stock for a few hundred dollars, and they discreetly stopped down the digital camera project. Nowadays, full Epix Pros with the original software and accessories are rarely seen on sale, so a recent purchase for roughly $400 is a bit of a significant find among early digital camera enthusiasts.

Photos from the Epix Pro do not look particularly sharp by today’s standards, and one of the units we examined had strange horizontal lines in the frames. Despite this, you can see how the interchangeable lenses, ample storage, and built-in checks against subsequent manipulation were all intended to address the issue of individuals fiddling about with photographs after the fact. That is a topic that is still discussed today, but the Epix Pro and its ‘full computer in the camera’ approach never really took off. As a result, it has become a widely forgotten experiment from the early days of consumer digital photography.