Back in 93 While on the USS John F. Kennedy, we got a Sony digital camera to test. I'm not sure if it was the first or not but I know that my experience with it kept me from digital for 12 years.
"Since the mid-1970s, Kodak has invented several solid-state image sensors that "converted light to digital pictures" for professional and home consumer use. In 1986, Kodak scientists invented the world's first megapixel sensor, capable of recording 1.4 million pixels that could produce a 5x7-inch digital photo-quality print. In 1987, Kodak released seven products for recording, storing, manipulating, transmitting and printing electronic still video images. In 1990, Kodak developed the Photo CD system and proposed "the first worldwide standard for defining color in the digital environment of computers and computer peripherals." In 1991, Kodak released the first professional digital camera system (DCS), aimed at photojournalists. It was a Nikon F-3 camera equipped by Kodak with a 1.3 megapixel sensor."
Before those, there were some digital "camera backs" for 4x5 and 8x10 view cameras; often they needed to be tethered to a laptop and hard drive (no flash memory back then). One of the first big digital photo projects was/is Stephen Johnson's multi-year project to photograph all of the National Parks, using 4x5 backs which capture a 130-145MB file.
If I rememebr correctly, that 1.3 MP Nikon/Kodak hybrid cost around $15,000.
I was working as a wire photographer in the early 90s. The first story I remember seeing all digital from AP was the US evacuation of Haiti. I remember because some newspapers were upset that there wasn't enough resolution to run the shots full page (5 or 6 columns). The most you could get from those early digital cameras was a 3 column width.
Fast forward a few years, I believe the 2005 Superbowl was the first Superbowl that had no one shooting film on deadline. All deadline shots were digital, magazine and newspaper.
