Analog electronic cameras and true cameras

The handheld electronic cameras, in the sense of a device made to be worn and used as a handheld camera film, appeared in 1981 with the demonstration of Sony Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera). This model should not be confused with the more modern cameras that also use the Sony Mavica name. This was an analog camera based on television technology that recorded in a “video floppy” of an inch x 2. Essentially it was a video camera that recorded images, 50 per disk in field mode and 25 per disk in frame mode. The image quality was considered equal to the televisions of the time.

Analog electronic cameras have not reached the market until 1986 with the Canon RC-701. Canon demonstrated this model at the 1984 Olympics, printing the images in newspapers. Several factors delayed the widespread adoption of analog cameras: the cost (up to $ 20,000), poor image quality compared to the film, the lack of quality printers. Capturing and printing an image originally required access to equipment such as a frame grabber, which was beyond the reach of the average consumer. Video disks later had several reader devices available for viewing on a screen, but were never standardized as a computer drive.

The early adopters tended to be the news media, where the cost was negated by the utility and the ability to transmit images over telephone lines. The poor image quality was offset by the low resolution of newspaper graphics. This ability to transmit images without a satellite link was useful during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the first Gulf War in 1991.

The first analog camera for sale to consumers may have been the Canon RC-250 Xapshot in 1988. A remarkable analogue camera produced in the same year was the Nikon QV-1000C, which sold about 100 units and recorded in grayscale images, and newspaper print quality was equal to film cameras. In appearance it resembled a modern digital SLR camera.

The first true digital camera that recorded images on a computer file was probably the model of Fuji DS-1P in 1988, which recorded on a card of 16 MB internal memory and used a battery to keep data in memory. This camera was never put on sale in the United States. The first digital camera available in the market was the Dycam Model 1, in 1991, which was also sold under the Logitech name Fotoman. It used a CCD sensor, digitally recorded images, and had a connection cable for direct download on the computer. [3] [4] [5]

In 1991, Kodak launched its Model DCS-100, the first in a long line of professional SLR cameras by Kodak that were based in part on film cameras, often brand Nikon. It used a 1.3 megapixel sensor and sold at about $ 13,000.

The transition to digital formats was helped by the formation of the first JPEG and MPEG standards in 1988, which allowed the image and video files are compressed for storage. The first camera aimed at consumers with an LCD screen on the back was the Casio QV-10 in 1995 and the first camera to use CompactFlash memory cards was the Kodak DC-25 in 1996.

The market for digital cameras aimed at the consumer was originally formed by low-resolution cameras. In 1997 he offered the first consumer camera to a megapixel. The first camera that offered the ability to record video clips may have been the Ricoh RDC-1 in 1995.

In 1999 with the introduction of the Nikon D1, a 2.74 megapixel camera, which was one of the first digital SLR, the company became a major manufacturer, and with an initial cost of less than $ 6,000, was affordable for both photographers professionals and consumers with high profile. This camera also used Nikon F lens, which meant that photographers could use many of the same lenses they already had to their film cameras.

In 2003 he introduced the Canon Digital Rebel, also known as the 300D, a camera aimed at consumers of 6 megapixels and the first DSLR that had a cost less than $ 1,000.

In 2008 was presented at the Fair of Germany, a medium-format Leica camera with a resolution of 37 Megapixels.

Digital camera history

A digital camera is a camera that, instead of capturing and storing pictures in photographic film like conventional cameras, it does digitally through an electronic device, or magnetic tape using an analog format like many video cameras.

Modern compact digital cameras are typically multifunctional, with some devices capable of recording sound and / or video as well as photographs. In this case, the device also is called digital camcorder. Now outsell digital cameras cameras with 35mm film.

The concepts of scanner-scan images and convert digital video signals to precede the concept of taking still frames digitized signals and an array of discrete sensor elements. Eugene F. Lally of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory published the first description of how to produce still photos in a digital domain using a mosaic photosensor. [2] The purpose was to provide navigation information to astronauts during space missions aboard. The mosaic array periodically recorded still photos of star and planet locations during transit and when approaching a planet provided additional information to the orbiting distances and as a guide for landing. The concept design included elements that presaged the first digital camera.

Texas Instruments designed a filmless analog camera in 1972, but do not know if it was finally built. The first digital camera was recorded by the Kodak company developed, which commissioned the construction of a prototype engineer Steven J. Sasson in 1975. This camera used the then newly developed CCD sensor by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1973. His work bore fruit a chamber of approximately 4 kg, which was black and white photos with a resolution of 0.01 megapixels. He used the novel solid-state chip CCD developed by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1973. The camera recorded images on a cassette tape and took 23 seconds to capture its first image in December 1975. This prototype camera was a technical exercise, not intended for production.