alchemico

scarligamerluss:

spaceman70:

strle:

usersillusions:

nerdology:

Above is the first digital camera.  It was made by Steve Sasson working for Kodak in 1975. 1975! Using “a lens from a Super 8 camera, a whole stack of ni-cad batteries, a digital to analog converter from a voltmeter, [and] a highly experimental CCD.”  Oh and that cassette tape on the side, thats are how the pictures are stored.

The camera captured a 100-line image onto that cassette-tape, yet even that tiny picture took a mind-numbing 23 seconds to write. Playback was possibly clunkier still, using another tape-player hooked up to a frame-storing devices that interpolated those 100 lines to an NTSC-compatible 400-line image and then showed it on a regular TV-screen.

Though it was built in 1975 and patented in 1978 it stayed hidden from the public until 2001.  It still remains in Steve Sasson’s possession still.

Steve Sasson’s longer account on the Kodak blog is really delightful.