I was in love with digicams from the outset and bought one straight away when they came out at less than 1mp. The quality was awful for anything but snap size prints, and I had a series of compacts after that all gradually getting better but not quite hacking it as I wanted them to.
Anyone who bought a very early DSLR wanted their bumps feeling IMO when you could buy a compact with a built in zoom which would be as good if not better. Everyone wanted the DSLR to replace film SLR quality, but they simply didn't - although the convenience of the new technology couldn't be denied, there was a serious trade off in quality for all that convenience.
It wasn't until the 10D (in Canon terms) that the digital SLR really came of age, but I couldn't afford one at the time, so hung on to my film cameras and contented myself with those supported by a digi compact.
Modern DSLRs are fantastic, but cameras like the D1 represent very early attempts and bear little relationship to what we have today.
