There are dozens of camera sites on the internet that claim to know everything about the individual digital cameras of the early era of this relatively young medium. And there are many old collectors who have smiled at me for my small collection for the past 10 years. But I have learned one thing ... about Japanese products, often not even the manufacturers themselves know exactly, because the Japanese are not interested in the past. This is not only visible in their cities and the way they deal with old properties, no, one can also observe this, for example, in the extremely late installation of the Nikon Museum in Tokyo. In truth, most of the photos in any publications are not from Nikon, but from Christhope SAP, a Belgian collector and friend.
For me it was never important to be the first to share what I knew about an old camera with the world on my own website. Because most of the information that is published takes place without proof and without any indication of the source, and is therefore completely worthless. I don't have a huge collection either, so my experience is limited to observations that I could make on my models in real life. In this photo you can see something for yourself that, in my opinion, has never been described. The Fuji DS-10 is widely known but has reportedly sold millions of pieces. So maybe ... LOL.
The very first batch of DS-10 had Serialnumbers starting with 720** in silver colour and were made in Japan
As you can see, the DS-10 is slightly brownish, as is well known. I wouldn't classify the color as gold because it appears too dark and colorless for that. When I held the silver version in my hands today I was amazed and took all my DS-10 models to hand. What I found out after studying the serial numbers is this. There was obviously a first batch in silver that started with the serial number 720 **. These very first Fujifilm Clip-IT DS-10 were made in Japan and were silver.
It is interesting that afterwards there was apparently a second batch in this well-known "golden" shade of brown with serial numbers starting with 730 **. This batch was still made in Japan. After that, however, the production was outsourced to China and all subsequent Chinese serial numbers first have a digit, then a Latin letter and then again 5 digits. And all of the DS-10 made in China were brown.
It is also exciting that it is claimed on the Internet that the transparent blue DS-10S was sold as a limited edition with only 3000 pieces. I can't find any evidence of this. Neither in the serial number, because this starts just like the second batch of the brown DS-10 with 730 **, although this skeleton model is also available with serial numbers starting with 740 **. And on the packaging there is only the indication that it is a "Special Edition" but not a limited edition!