I have disposed of very few of the cameras I have had since I began my photography almost 40 years ago. Today, I had a reminder of the earliest digital camera I got when I saw a Throwback Review by Gordon Laing of the Canon PowerShot G1, released in 2000.
I still have mine, with box and all the various attachments, including wide angle and telephoto lens add-ons. So, I decided to dust my copy off and see if it would still work, and if so, how it would behave.
I still have the original batteries and they still work perfectly, so after making sure everything was charged up, with the date and time reset, and making sure I was shooting in RAW - an almost unique feature of the camera at the time, I popped in a 2GB CF card and went in search of some sample images.
Now, with the very dubious weather - sunny bursts that could lull one into a false sense of security before squalls descended, I decided to stay in my garden, thus limiting the range of images available. Still, I got a few shots out that confirm it still works as well as it did over 20 years ago! I even got Boris, my garden helper to pose for me as he took a break from his busy work schedule.
Certainly, it doesn't have the dynamic range of today's tech, but I am impressed at how well it performed.
Frankly, I have seen worse on images posted to the web from much newer gear...
I think B+W early photography is a good topic - perhaps we need a new thread to discuss the work of early B+W photographers, and we will continue with this thread as per the original post? 
With the issues of this camera being challenged with CA, greyscale imagery is actually a very viable solution for those who want to be creative at a rock-bottom price. I may go out and do some more shooting with that in mind over the next couple of days and see what can be achieved!
These two are the bark of the NZ Kauri Tree:
Canon PS G1 18mm, f/2.2, 1/60sec, ISO-50, available light, hand-held
Canon PS G1 12mm, f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO-50, available light, hand-held
