How Kodak Built a FrankenCamera to Take Digital Photos in 1975 [Kodak]

Through the frigid Rochester winter of 1975, researchers at Kodak pieced together the longer term a quarter of a century early. Built from scavenged parts, the team had created their first ” film-less” camera-a concept far in advance of its time.

Kodak’s Steve Sasson recounts the trouble with joy. The strange looking device was built with spare parts from a great 8 camera, an experimental CCD sensor, and a cassette recorder. Yes, a cassette recorder-taking 23 seconds to record a single image composed of only 100 lines of resolution. To view each image, the tape had to be popped into a unique reader, where it may be upscaled and viewed on a black and white television set.

No film, no ink. And lots of discomfort when shown to discover audiences. When demoed to those outside of Kodak, Sasson remembers hearing numerous uneasy questions: ” Why would anyone ever wish to view his or her pictures on a TV? How would you store these images? What does an electronic photo album seem like? When would this sort of approach be available to the shopper?”

The prototype stayed with Sasson as an individual prize, but not before being patented and receiving an intensive internal writeup on the unusual device’s potential. It what did Kodak conclude?

” The camera described in this report represents a first attempt demonstrating a photographic system that may, with improvements in technology, substantially impact the best way pictures might be taken one day.”

To say the least. [ Kodak via NY Times ]

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This post is tagged: built, digital, Frankencamera, Kodak, photos