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.