Guides / CCD cameras
CCD cameras
The sensor technology the whole industry abandoned between 2008 and 2012, and the one a growing number of people are buying back on purpose. What it does differently, which kind is in which camera, and all 109 CCD bodies we track, from a $25 Coolpix to a Leica M9.
Last updated October 2026
What a CCD does differently
Every digital sensor turns light into electrons in a grid of photodiodes. The difference is in what happens next. A CMOS sensor puts an amplifier at every pixel and reads the grid out through parallel columns, which is fast, cheap to run and lets the sensor do live view and video. A CCD, a charge-coupled device, has no electronics at the pixel. It shifts the charge from each photodiode physically across the chip, bucket-brigade style, to a single amplifier in the corner, one row at a time.
That one-amplifier design is the whole story. Every pixel is read through the same path, so the fixed-pattern noise CMOS sensors fight with calibration is simply absent. The pixel has more of its area open to light because there is no transistor sitting in it. And the readout is global by nature, so there is no rolling shutter. The costs are the mirror image: readout is slow, the chip runs hot and hungry, high ISO is poor because the signal gets amplified late and once, and video is somewhere between bad and impossible.
The "CCD look" people describe, dense colour, a particular roll-off into highlights, grain that reads as texture rather than smear, is partly the sensor and partly everything around it. These cameras used stronger colour filter arrays than modern sensors, which trades sensitivity for colour separation. They had weaker in-camera processing, so the files are less cooked. And they were designed for ISO 100 to 400, which is where they get shot. A fair chunk of the look is a 2005 JPEG engine with no noise reduction to speak of. That does not make it less real. It makes it harder to fake.
Not one CCD but four
Sony interline CCDs are the industry default and most of this page. Sony sold the same handful of chips to everyone: one 6MP APS-C CCD sits in the Nikon D70 and D40, the Pentax *ist and K100D, both Konica Minolta Maxxums and the Epson R-D1; one 10MP chip in the Nikon D200, the Pentax K10D and K200D, and the Sony A100 through A330. The compacts ran through the 1/1.8-inch and 2/3-inch families the same way. If you have shot one Sony-CCD camera from a given year, you have a good idea of the rest; the differences are lenses, processing and bodies.
Kodak CCDs are the cult within the cult. Several of Kodak's chips were full-frame-transfer designs (a transfer architecture, not a sensor size) with no interline registers, so the whole pixel was photosensitive, and Kodak paired all of them with weak infrared filters and its own colour science. That is the Olympus E-1, E-300 and E-500, every Leica M from the M8 to the M-E, and the 40MP Pentax 645D. The M8's magenta synthetics and the E-1's reds are the same decision seen from two sides.
Fujifilm SuperCCD rotated the pixel grid 45 degrees into octagons, which is why early ones quote double the native resolution, and in the SR variant put two photodiodes of different sensitivity under each pixel to hold highlights. That is the S3 Pro and S5 Pro, which wedding photographers kept for skin tones years after they were obsolete, and the F30 and F31fd, the only compacts of the era that were any good past ISO 400.
Sony RGBE is one camera. The DSC-F828 replaced half the green filters with emerald, on the theory that four colours would get closer to how the eye sees cyan. It did something; nobody could agree what, and Sony never did it again. Panasonic made its own CCDs for the Lumix LX and FZ lines and the Leica D-Lux twins, and Kodak's EasyShare bridge cameras never said whose chip they used.
Why they died, and why they came back
Canon never put one in a DSLR. Everyone else switched between 2008 and 2010, once CMOS sensors matched CCD image quality at base ISO and beat it everywhere above, while also doing live view, video and ten frames a second on a smaller battery. The last CCD DSLRs from the majors were the Pentax K-m in 2008 and the Sony A390 in 2010. Enthusiast compacts held on to 2011 (the GR Digital IV, the P7100, the XZ-1) and Leica kept the M9 line going until the Typ 240 in 2012. The 645D was the last one standing, sold new until 2014.
The revival ran in two waves. The first was the 2022 to 2024 "digicam" moment, mostly on TikTok, mostly about pocket compacts, and it priced the F31fd and the Canon G-series up three to five times. The second wave, which is where things stand in 2026, is slower and more deliberate: people who already have a modern camera buying a Nikon D200 or a Pentax K10D for $100 to $150 as a second body with a different look, and a smaller group paying real money for the Kodak-sensor cameras. The D200 and the E-300 are the two most-discussed bodies in that conversation, for the same reason: both are cheap, both are well built, and both produce files that look like nothing current.
The honest counter-argument is that most of what people love can be approximated with a profile and a low-ISO habit, and that a 2006 DSLR is a 2006 DSLR: slow to focus, a dim screen, batteries that are getting hard to find. Both things are true. The cameras on this page are not better than what replaced them. They are different in a way that is cheap to own and hard to reproduce, and at $25 for a Coolpix 5700 the argument settles itself.
Every CCD body we track
Oldest first. Filter by body type, which family of sensor it carries, sensor size, what it costs today, or era. "Has a video" narrows to the 14 bodies with a review from Snappiness or One Month Two Cameras, linked on the card. A On the shelf pill marks the ones in our own collection.
1999 · 1/2" Sony CCD · 2.1MP
f/2.0 lens, full manual, 2MP. The start of the C-series.
2000 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 3.3MP
C-2020 body at 3MP with a usable burst buffer.
2000 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 3.3MP
The swivel body. 2cm macro, lived on microscopes for a decade.
2000 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 3.3MP
Started the G line. f/2.0, flip LCD, RAW, hot shoe, champagne body.
2001 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 3.3MP
First of the line with the f/1.8 lens.
2001 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 4.1MP
4MP, f/1.8. The cheap way into the 5050 look.
2001 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 3.3MP
990 with a pop-up flash and a 4x zoom.
2001 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 5MP
Zeiss barrel on a hinge, NightShot, hologram AF.
2001 · APS-C Sony CCD · 5.3MP
Nikon's first high-res pro body: rectangular pixels, 5.3MP, a brick.
2001 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 4MP
G1 at 4MP. Has its own following for the colour.
Watch: Canon G2 Review (One Month Two Cameras)
2001 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 2.6MP
10x stabilised zoom on 2.6MP. The Pro1's strange ancestor.
2002 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 5MP
The most collected body in the line: f/1.8, magnesium, three card slots.
2002 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 4MP
Last swivel Coolpix, slimmer, magnesium.
2002 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 5MP
5MP 2/3-inch bridge with an 8x zoom.
2002 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 5MP
The F707 with faster AF and a hot shoe. The one people mean.
2002 · 1/1.76" Sony CCD · 3.9MP
Panasonic LC5 twin. First of the modern Digilux line.
2002 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 5MP
The original SLR-shaped bridge: mechanical zoom ring, real grip.
2002 · 1/1.7" SuperCCD · 3.1MP
The SuperCCD bridge that started the S line. 3MP native, 6MP output.
2002 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 4MP
f/2.0-3.0 lens and the first DIGIC.
2003 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
Pentax's first DSLR on the 6MP Sony CCD everyone used.
2003 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 5.1MP
5050's boxier successor, 27mm wide, slower lens.
2003 · 2/3" RGBE CCD · 8MP
The only camera built on Sony's four-colour RGBE sensor. Purple fringing, colour nothing else matches.
Watch: RGB...E? This quirky old Sony F-828 (Snappiness)
2003 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 5MP
First camera with sensor-shift stabilisation.
2003 · Four Thirds Kodak CCD · 5MP
Kodak KAF-5101 CCD, 5MP, weather-sealed magnesium. The E-1 colour is a real thing.
Watch: Olympus E1 Review (One Month Two Cameras)
2003 · 1/2.5" CCD · 4MP
Schneider 10x on a 4MP CCD, Kodak colour science.
2003 · 1/1.7" SuperCCD · 6.3MP
S602 body with the 6.3MP SuperCCD HR and RAW.
2004 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
Smaller *ist D with a pentaprism. AA batteries.
2004 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 8MP
Sharpest lens of the 2004 8MP class. 28mm wide, magnesium.
2004 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 8MP
24mm equivalent. The widest fixed lens of the era.
2004 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 8MP
35-350 with Nikon's first VR in a compact.
2004 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 7.2MP
Black magnesium brick, Zeiss lens, hot shoe, NightShot.
2004 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
6MP CCD with a 1/8000 shutter and flash sync to 1/500 via the electronic shutter. $30 now.
2004 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 5MP
Aperture ring, shutter dial, manual zoom. The most CCD failures on this page, so buy a working one.
2004 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 8MP
A1 with 8MP and the best EVF in the class.
2004 · Four Thirds Kodak CCD · 8MP
Kodak KAF-8300 CCD in a sideways-porro-prism body. No hump, and the colour the E-1 crowd talks about.
Watch: Tiny DSLR shoots like film (Snappiness) · Olympus Evolt E-300 Review (One Month Two Cameras) · 3 Legendary DSLRs Head to Head (Snappiness)
2004 · APS-C SuperCCD · 6.17MP
SuperCCD SR: two photodiodes per pixel for highlight range. Wedding photographers' secret.
2004 · 1/2.5" Panasonic CCD · 5MP
Leica 12x, constant f/2.8, optical IS. The Lumix that got attention.
2004 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 5MP
Digilux 2 without the red dot, half the price.
2004 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
First DSLR with in-body stabilisation. 6MP CCD, dials for everything.
Watch: Konica Minolta 5D, 7D + Sony A100 Review (One Month Two Cameras)
2004 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 7.1MP
Last original-shape G before the G7 dropped RAW.
2004 · 2/3" Sony CCD · 8MP
The only L-series lens Canon ever fixed to a camera.
Watch: What makes this 8mp CCD camera so special? (Snappiness)
2004 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 7.1MP
Pocket CCD: 28mm wide, RAW, sliding cover.
2004 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
The first digital rangefinder, with the D100's 6MP CCD and analogue needle gauges.
2005 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
Pentamirror budget *ist.
Watch: The Six Megapixel Club: a 14-year-old Pentax DSLR in 2019 (Snappiness)
2005 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 7.1MP
Last of the C-x0x0 line.
2005 · 1/1.65" Panasonic CCD · 8.4MP
LX1 with a red dot, at about double.
2005 · APS-C Sony CCD · 10.2MP
10MP CCD in a magnesium pro-grade body. The CCD DSLR people point to first.
2005 · Four Thirds Kodak CCD · 8MP
Last of the Kodak-CCD Olympus bodies, in a conventional shape.
2005 · 1/1.8" CCD · 8MP
24mm-wide 8MP bridge with a Schneider lens and RAW.
2005 · 1/1.6" SuperCCD · 9MP
Manual 28-300 on a 9MP SuperCCD. S9500 in Europe.
2005 · 1/1.8" Panasonic CCD · 8MP
Bigger sensor, mechanical rings, a real grip.
2005 · 1/1.65" Panasonic CCD · 8.4MP
First 16:9 sensor compact, Leica 28-112, IS.
2005 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
7D's sensor and Anti-Shake in a cheaper body.
Watch: Konica Minolta 5D, 7D + Sony A100 Review (One Month Two Cameras)
2006 · APS-C Sony CCD · 10.2MP
Sony's first Alpha: the Maxxum 5D body with the D200's 10MP CCD.
Watch: Konica Minolta 5D, 7D + Sony A100 Review (One Month Two Cameras)
2006 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
6MP CCD, 1/500 flash sync, 475g. The cheapest way into CCD DSLR files.
2006 · 1/2.5" CCD · 7.1MP
Kodak's last prosumer bridge, Schneider 12x, RAW.
2006 · 1/1.7" SuperCCD · 6.3MP
The CCD-era low-light legend. Usable ISO 3200 in 2006.
2006 · 1/1.7" SuperCCD · 6.3MP
F30 with face detection. The more sought-after of the pair.
2006 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
Shake Reduction arrives at Pentax, on the 6MP CCD, on AAs.
2006 · APS-C Sony CCD · 10.2MP
10MP CCD, weather sealing, SR, two dials. The best-built CCD DSLR under $150.
Watch: Pentax K10D + 43mm FA Limited: CCD Sensor Shines Again (Snappiness) · 3 Legendary DSLRs Head to Head (Snappiness)
2006 · 1/1.8" Panasonic CCD · 10.1MP
The last big-body CCD superzoom anyone made.
2006 · APS-H Kodak CCD · 10.3MP
Kodak KAF-10500, thin IR filter, magenta synthetics without the UV/IR cut filters. The first digital M.
Watch: Leica M8 Review (One Month Two Cameras)
2006 · 1/1.8" Sony CCD · 10MP
The no-RAW G. Still a 10MP CCD with an optical finder.
2006 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
R-D1 with firmware fixes and a $1,000 lower price.
2007 · 1/1.75" Sony CCD · 10MP
GR Digital sibling with a 24-72 zoom and removable EVF. Japan-only.
2007 · APS-C SuperCCD · 6.17MP
SuperCCD SR Pro in a D200 body. The last Fuji DSLR and the one skin-tone obsessives hold onto.
Watch: Fuji S5 Pro: The 2007 DSLR With Color I Still Chase (One Month Two Cameras)
2007 · 1/1.75" Sony CCD · 10MP
28mm f/2.4, RAW, the GR formula on a CCD.
2007 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
K100D with dust removal and SDM lens support.
2007 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 12.1MP
RAW came back. The G that started the enthusiast-compact revival.
2008 · APS-C Sony CCD · 10.2MP
A200 with tilting live view via a second sensor.
2008 · APS-C Sony CCD · 14.2MP
14.2MP CCD, the highest-resolution APS-C CCD ever sold.
2008 · 1/2.3" Sony CCD · 9MP
A wave-shaped 9MP pocket Coolpix with Wi-Fi in 2008. Nobody's cult object, which is partly the point.
2008 · APS-C Sony CCD · 10.2MP
Weather-sealed 10MP CCD on AAs. Pentax's last CCD body with sealing.
2008 · 1/1.63" Panasonic CCD · 10.1MP
24mm f/2.0 Leica lens. The compact that made the LX line.
Watch: Panasonic Lumix LX3 Review (One Month Two Cameras)
2008 · APS-H Kodak CCD · 10.3MP
Quieter shutter, sapphire screen, same Kodak sensor.
2008 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 14.7MP
14.7MP was too many for the chip; the dense metal body is the draw.
2009 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 10MP
f/1.9 lens, the best of the CCD GRs.
2009 · Full Frame Kodak CCD · 18MP
Kodak KAF-18500, the first full-frame digital M and the last full-frame CCD anyone shipped. Check for the replaced sensor.
2009 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 10MP
Resolution walked back to 10MP, articulating screen returned.
2009 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 10MP
G11's sensor in a pocket with a control ring.
2009 · APS-C Sony CCD · 6.1MP
Japan-only final R-D1 with a fixed screen. Same 2004 sensor, five years on.
2010 · Medium Format Kodak CCD · 40MP
40MP Kodak KAF-40000 medium format. The cheapest medium-format CCD you can still buy.
2010 · APS-C Sony CCD · 14.2MP
The last CCD Alphas, with the A390.
2010 · APS-C Sony CCD · 14.2MP
The last CCD DSLR from anyone but Leica.
2010 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 10.1MP
Nikon's G11 answer: 28-200, optical finder, RAW.
2010 · 1/1.63" Panasonic CCD · 10.1MP
LX3 with 24-90 reach and a hot shoe. Last CCD LX.
2010 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 10MP
G11 with a front dial and 720p. The last CCD G.
2010 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 10MP
The one that made the S-series.
2011 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 10.1MP
P7000 with a tilting screen and faster processing.
2011 · 1/2.3" Sony CCD · 16.1MP
Sliding-cover touchscreen T-series. 16MP on a 1/2.3-inch CCD, which is a lot.
2011 · 1/1.7" Sony CCD · 10MP
Hybrid AF and sensor-shift IS. The last CCD GR.
2011 · Full Frame Kodak CCD · 18MP
M9 without the red dot, with sapphire glass.
2011 · 1/1.63" Sony CCD · 10MP
f/1.8-2.5 i.Zuiko lens, OLED screen. Olympus's one serious CCD compact.
Watch: Olympus XZ-1 Review (One Month Two Cameras)
2012 · Full Frame Kodak CCD · 18MP
The M9 sensor with no colour filter array. The purest CCD files ever sold.
2012 · Full Frame Kodak CCD · 18MP
Budget M9 in anthracite. Last new CCD Leica.
Nothing matches that combination. Loosen one of the filters, or reset.
Watch before you buy
Two channels have done more of the actual shooting with these cameras than anyone, and both are worth an evening before you spend anything. The per-camera links on the cards above come from them; these are the general ones.
Snappiness @snappiness
Cool old cameras and photography on a budget. The channel that put the CCD DSLR on the map.
One Month Two Cameras @onemonthtwocameras
Long-form reviews shot with the camera in hand, including most of the Kodak-sensor bodies here.
- CCD Is The New Film (Snappiness). The thesis video for the whole revival, from 2023.
- 5 Reasons Old DSLRs Are The Best Cameras To Buy (Snappiness). The 2006 to 2008 10MP CCD DSLR era in four minutes.
- The Cheapest DSLRs Worth Buying Today (Snappiness). A ranked list of sub-$100 DSLRs, most of them on this page.
- Buying a Digicam: A Guide to Navigating Vintage Digital Cameras (One Month Two Cameras). What to check, what to avoid, what the listings mean.
- Do You Still Use CCD Cameras?? and other Q+As (One Month Two Cameras). The honest answer from someone who has reviewed most of them.
What to check before you buy
The Leica M9 sensor. The Kodak chip in the M9, M9-P, M-E and Monochrom develops corrosion on its cover glass. Leica replaced sensors free, then at a price, then stopped altogether. A body with the replaced sensor is worth a lot more than one without, and sellers know it, so ask for the service record and look for the word "corrosion" in the listing. The M8 has a different sensor and does not suffer from it.
The 2002 to 2005 Sony compact CCDs. A run of Sony chips fails outright: black, purple or striped frames. The Digilux 2, LC1, F717 and Coolpix 5700 are on the list. Ask for a current test frame and price "untested" as "dead".
Shutter counts do not exist on most of these. The Nikon and Pentax DSLRs write a count into EXIF; the Olympus E bodies hide it in a service menu; the compacts have no count at all. Judge by the grip rubber, the card door and whether the screen has a scratch pattern, which tells you more than a number would.
Batteries and cards. The CCD DSLRs are the easy case: the Nikon EN-EL3, Pentax D-LI50 and Sony NP-FM500H are all still made by someone, and the K100D, K200D and *ist DS run on AAs. The compacts are the hard case, and the digicam guide covers which ones take a battery you can still buy and which take a card format that died in 2006.
Where to go next
The compact and bridge half of this list is covered in more depth, with the batteries and card-format traps, in Digicams in 2026. The Kodak-sensor Olympus bodies and the lenses that go on them are in the Four Thirds guide. And if you want the look without the 2006 autofocus, the compact cameras guide covers the last CCD generation (LX3, G10 through G12, S95, GR Digital III and IV) that still has dealer stock and a warranty.