We always seem to be looking for the newest, coolest, and feature-filled digicam we can find, but let’s take a break and look to the past. Yes, folks it’s retro time here and thanks to Wired Magazine, we look at one of the oldest digicams in the world the Kodak Digital Still Camera from circa-1975.
Here’s how the old thing works:
Dubbed “Film-less Photography”, the prototype camera records images and plays them back on a television set. Sasson hacked together the camera from spare parts: the lens is from a Super 8 movie camera, the image is captured by a CCD (Charged Coupled Device, an array of capacitors which convert light into an electrical signal) and the resulting image is recorded onto a cassette tape. The whole thing is powered by 16 nickel cadmium batteries.
The portable electronic still camera takes 23 seconds to record a 100 line image to tape. To view the picture, you pop out the cassette and slip it into the custom-built playback device. This uses another cassette player and a frame store to boost the image to 400 lines and outputs a standard NTSC signal for use on any television.
Ahh, there’s nothing more than looking into past gadgets to appreciate the one you have now.
