Kodak's 1975 Model Digital Camera - Printable Version

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Kodak's 1975 Model Digital Camera - shuttertalk - Jan 10, 2012

Bit of a walk down memory lane - this was the first digital camera built in the world, back in 1975 by Kodak engineers using bits and pieces from a video camera and computer parts.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/bits-pics-kodaks-1975-model-digital-camera/

Quote:One of my favorite factoids about this snazzy digital camera is the fact that it took 23 seconds to record a single digital image to its cassette deck. To view the filmless photo, Mr. Sasson had to remove the cassette from the camera and place it in a customized reader that could display the image on an old black and white television.

Interestingly, audiences failed to see the potential:

Quote:Why would anyone ever want to view his or her pictures on a TV? How would you store these images? What does an electronic photo album look like? When would this type of approach be available to the consumer?

I'm glad they persevered with the idea, although the first camera to actually reach production didn't happen until 13 years later in 1988 with the Fuji DS-1P. More interesting trivia and nostalgia here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_camera#Digital_cameras

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Kodak's 1975 Model Digital Camera - Don Schaeffer - Jan 11, 2012

How neat can you get? I remember the early days of computers--up and down loading onto cassettes. It could take an hour to download a simple program. You just sat and waited, unless the tape crapped out. We got our first PC in 1979 (TRS-80 model 1 with 4k ram).

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