Tomorrow’s World vs Today’s Reality: Whatever happened to the cameras of the future?

The year: 1990. The cameras: wild, unpredictable and arguably, a lot more exciting than what we see today.

Yes, we're going old school this week, with the BBC's latest delve into its archive turning up a wonderfully optimistic tour of photography’s “future” — and a few predictions that didn’t quite stick the landing.

There’s presenter Peter Macann revisiting a mid-80s digital camera that proudly saved images onto floppy disks. In reality, it delivered fuzzy results and came with a price tag that was totally out the gate.

Then there’s the slightly ambitious idea of hybrid cameras that tried to do everything at once: film, digital, and a rather chunky attachment bolted on like it had been added after lunch. 

Not all the experiments missed though. The Nimslo 3D camera had its moment of depth-heavy ambition, but it was more “curiosity cabinet” than everyday kit. Apparently, its spirit lived on in Japan, proving some ideas refuse to fully retire.

Meanwhile, autofocus, a feature once shown off like witchcraft on Tomorrow’s World, quietly became the one prediction that is now ubiquitous.

And then, almost as an afterthought, the disposable camera arrives, the complete opposite of all of the above - simple, cheap, no instructions required, and it became the runaway hit nobody saw coming.

Happy watching, space cadets!