From the mid-90s I was already shooting digital photography (read more here). This was more or less digital. Images were recorded in the same way as video was on VHS. The disks were easily corrupted and VHS quality still images were not the greatest.
In 1999 I upgraded to a real digital photo camera, one that recorded on CompactFlash cards, it even came with an 8MB (Megabyte) memory card.

A Nikon Coolpix 950; a 2MP(megapixels, a million pixels) camera with a lens that could rotate 270 degrees independent from the rest of the camera body. With 500kB an image I could fit around 16 images on the included memory card. An additional 64MB CompactFlash card brought respite and gave me the space for more than 100 pictures on one card. A great increase compared to the 36-37 photos on a single role of film or 50 photos on my first digital camera. The images were sharp and compared to the computer screens of the day had an enormous amount of pixels (Most screens and graphics maxed out at 800×600 pixels). The camera only had a serial connection for copying to the computer, so a USB card reader was needed to speed up copying the photos.

For its time the camera was great, and it took many years before most mobile phones could compete with its resolution. And with a minimum focus distance of 2cm, it was an excellent camera for macro photography.

The next upgrade for me wasn’t until at least 5 years later.

One of the first pictures I took with the Nikon Coolpix 950

The view from the Empire State Building in New York on Christmas Eve 2001. The crossing is 34th (up-down) and 7th (left-right).