1989        R

DIGICAM (Digital Camera) - 1989.   The first use of the word digicam that we have found was as a trademark name owned by J & G Coughtrie Ltd Montrose Avenue, Hillington, Glasgow, G52 4LZ, United Kingdom, dated 6 January 1989 (trade mark number UK00001369395), but it is no longer in effect.

https://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/1/UK00001369395

http://www.yourdictionary.com/digicam

http://www.wordsense.eu/digicam/

FOR MORE INFO CLICK HERE

JVC KY-15CI- 1989.  The KY-15CI was a high-resolution, three-CCD color camera for image capture in computer-graphics applications. The KY-15CI was designed for direct connection to TARGA, VISTA, and Raster Ops image capture boards through a 9-pin connector supplied with the camera. The KY-15CI had a resolution of 668 X 485 pixels and used a one-line scanning technique that produced a significant increase in vertical resolution. An optical prism was used to separate the red, green, and blue primary colors for color reproduction. The camera's electronic shutter stopped action down to 1/500 second per field.  MSRP $6,395.  The above ad is from the October 1989 issue of Computer Graphics Review.  Strangely, even though that magazine had ads in 1989 for the Canon RC-470 and JVC KY-15CI cameras which could be used as input devices  for computer graphics, they had no review or mention of such cameras, only scanners and digital frame grabbers as input devices. 

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/tech_desc.jsp?model_id=MDL100821&feature_id=02

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL100821&feature_id=01

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/press_res.jsp?model_id=MDL100821&feature_id=08

KODAK ECAM  / D-5000- 1989. In 1989, Steve Sasson and a colleague, Robert Hills, created the first modern digital single-lens reflex (S.L.R.) camera that looks and functions like today's professional models. It had a 1.2 megapixel sensor, and used image compression and memory cards. But Kodak's marketing department was not interested in it. Mr. Sasson was told they could sell the camera, but wouldn't because it would eat away at the company's film sales. The 1989 version of the digital camera, known as the Ecam (electronic camera) was the basis for a United States patent issued on May 14, 1991. Until it expired in the United States in 2007, the digital camera patent helped earn billions for Kodak, since it was not Mr. Sasson who owned it, making most digital camera manufacturers pay Kodak for the use of the technology. Though Kodak did eventually market both professional and consumer cameras, it did not fully embrace digital photography until it was too late.  In 2012 Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/kodaks-first-digital-moment/?_r=0

http://www.google.com/patents/US4131919

https://www.google.us/patents/EP0289944A1?cl=zh

KODAK HAWKEYE II INTEGRATED IMAGING ACCESSORY DIGITAL CAMERA - 1989. This camera was a follow-up of the 1988 Kodak digital Tactical Camera which was tethered to a shoulder pack. The Hawkeye II integrated camera replaced the shoulder pack with a housing attached to a Nikon F3 body and thus was more suitable for demonstrating this new digital technology. Images were stored in DRAM on an Image Storage Module that plugged into the side of the camera. Images were either four of 1280 x 1024 pixels or sixteen of 640 x 512 pixels. It was designed by Kodak's James McGarvey, lead engineer in Kodak's Federal Systems Division who kindly supplied the above photo and information. Renae Sanger did the mechanical design drawings. Bruce Crosman and Joanne Schieyer designed the circuit boards which were hand assembled by Tom McCarthy. Much more information concerning this and other early Kodak DSLRs can be seen on Mr. McGarvey's web site at http://jemcgarvey.com

KODAK HAWKEYE II TETHERED IMAGING ACCESSORY DIGITAL CAMERA - 1989. This was a tethered version of the above camera

KONICA KANPAI - 1989.  Konica's Kanpai was the world's first voice activated camera and would automatically swivel on its built-in tripod to take snapshots wherever it heard a burst of sound like laughter or cheers. The original 1989 model was red, later models were black.   "Products to Watch," Fortune.  Mar. 25, 1991.

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Konica_Kanpai

 

  MACINTOSH PROFESSIONAL IMAGE PROGRAM - 1989.  Letraset released Color Studio 1.0, the first professional image manipulation program for Macintosh computers.

http://www.fotomuseum.ws/archive/photo/timeline/decade/1975.htm

 

MEGAVISION TESSERA - 1989.  The first Tessera system went into regular use in early 1989 at a commercial photo studio in Minneapolis (Photo Mechanical Services, Inc.). Shooting 4 Megapixel images in a production photo studio, believed to be the world's first professional digital camera system.  Many thanks to John Cox of Megavision for providing these very rare photos to DigiCamHistory.Com.  We believe we were the first digital camera history web site to provide a photo and information concerning this camera.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaVision_%28cameras%29

NINTENDO GAME BOY - 1989. Model DMG-01, the first Game Boy, was released in 1989.

http://www.gizwizsearch.com/episode-595.html

https://www.google.us/patents/EP0289944A1?cl=zh

NISHIKA N8000 - 1989.   Nimslo, a manufacture of inexpensive 3D cameras, went bankrupt and was partly sold to a Nevada company called Nishika . In April 1989, Nishika introduced the four lens Nishika N8000 and later the four lens N9000. The N8000 featured a plastic body with plastic lenses, a fixed 1/60 shutter speed and a 3 position manual aperture lever that that selected f8, f11 and f19.

http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimslo

PCMCIA - 1989.   Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, an international standards body founded to establish standards for Integrated circuit cards and to promote interchangeability among mobile computers.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/PCMCIA

SANYO STILLVISION SVC-05 - 1989.   Prototype electronic still camera.  390K CCD.  Programmed auto-exposure, auto-flash, auto white balance, Shutter speed up to 1/2500 second.  MSRP $800.  Popular Photography, March 1989, p53.   We believe we were the first digital camera history web site to provide a photo and information concerning this camera.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=hu&u=https://pixinfo.com/cikkek/tortenelem-sanyo/&prev=search

SONY DIH 2000 DIGITAL IMAGE HANDLER - 1989.  The DIH2000 could capture single frame images from any video source, motion or still video cameras, and transmit them over standard phone lines in as little as ten seconds.  Sony won a special Emmy Award, Still-Picture Transmission Technology for News, honoring Sony for its development of still-picture transmission capabilities, particularly as it related to the 1989 student uprising in Tiananmen Square, China.  During the demonstrations the Chinese government blocked the transmission of live video.  News networks were forced to send their video tapes to Hong Kong for transmission thereby delaying their broadcasts by more than twelve hours.  CCN sent a crew into the field using a Sony Mavica still-video recording system (Mavica MVC-5000 camera) and sent their images over the Chinese telephone system to CNN's U.S. studios.  CNN delivered images to its audience many hours ahead of the competition.  Effects of those still images on American and European audiences was electrifying.  The Day The Image Stood Still, Paul Saffo, Personal Computing,  February 1990, p59.  Digital Photography: Pictures of Tomorrow, John Larish, 1992,  p4, p141.  We believe we were the first digital camera history web site to provide a photo and information concerning this item. 

The DIH 2000 and Sony still video camera (ProMavica MVC-5000) were also used during the Persian Gulf War by the U.S. Army to transmit photos to the Army Media Services Branch in Washington, D.C.

 
SONY ProMavica MVC-5000 - 1989.  The Sony ProMavica MVC-5000 (MAVICA = Magnetic Video Camera) still-video camera.  The MVC-5000 was the first to transmit almost instantaneous still color images over phone lines using Sony DIH2000 noted above and was the camera used by the CNN crew in China to transmit the Tienemen Square images. The ProMavica recorded images as magnetic impulses on a compact 2-inch still-video floppy disk.  The images were captured on the disk by using two CCD (charge-coupled device) chips.  One chip stored luminance information, and the other separately recorded the chrominance information.  This camera provided a 720,000-pixel image. The images could be stored on the floppy disk either in Frame or Field mode.  When Frame was selected, each picture was recorded on two tracks and up to 25 images could be recorded on each disk.  When Field was selected, each picture was recorded on only one track, allowing up to 50 images to be recorded.  When recorded in the Field mode, images were less detailed as compared to images recorded in the two-track Frame mode.  The MVC-5000 was considered to be the leader in image quality during its time.  The MVC-5000 recorded still video hi-band resolution at 500 TV lines versus the standard 360 lines of most other still video cameras of that period. Images could be shown on a TV by using the Sony MVR-5500A shown below.   MSRP $10,000.  Electronic Still Video, Folio, 1 February 1991, p75.  Digital Photography, Mikkel Aaland, 1992, p17.  We believe we were the first digital camera history web site to provide a photo and information concerning this camera. 

http://www.nikonweb.com/mvc5000/
 
http://www.home.eznet.net/~fshippey/newmedia/nm_dcam.pdf

Sony MVR-5500A

SONY ProMavica MVC-2000 - 1989.  The MVC-2000PF was a pre-production, hand-built camera sent to specific photographers for testing (see our 1986 page).  The production model went on sale in 1989.   This analog still video camera had a 13X zoom lens and was available only in NTSC.  It was a one-CCD camera of 2/3-inch and 380K pixels.  48mm to 288mm f/1.4 zoom lens.  Shutter 1/15 to 1/1000.  The upper right photo shows the MVC-2000PF new in the box along with the Sony MFL-30 flash made for that camera, the service manual which also included the operation instructions, several boxes of new mini floppies, a mini floppy disk cleaner, several dozen used mini floppies, the original MVC-2000PF carton, and a Panasonic AG-ES100 mini floppy disk player.   MSRP in 1989 for the MVC-2000 was $3,395. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Mavica

SONY CCD-TR55 - 1989.  Sony's first Handycam, 8mm video camera.

FOR MORE INFO CLICK HERE

   
TOSHIBA IMC-100 - 1989.  Similar to the Fuji DS-X above (cameras were supposedly jointly developed by Toshiba and Fuji).  2/3-inch 400K pixel CCD, prototype still digital memory card camera.  Images were captured on a credit-card-sized removable memory card. Auto white balance, built-in flash, built-in macro, 5 images per second burst.  Used IC-18s-18MB memory card with six-image capacity in high resolution mode.  Continous shooting up to five frames per second.  Understanding Electronic Photography, John J. Larish, 1990, p47.  A Toshiba press release at the time contained a drawing of what Tosiba described as "The Applications of the Toshiba Digital Card Camera System".  At the center of the drawing was the camera shown above.    MSRP $3,999 ($10,000 in 2024 dollars)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwtJ5wU1Izg  18 minute Video of digicam history

https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-first-commercial-digital-camera-available-to-the-public-and-who-created-it

http://sts.kahaku.go.jp/diversity/document/system/pdf/039_e.pdf

http://toshiba-mirai-kagakukan.jp/en/index.htm

TOSHIBA IC-100 - 1989.  Images were captured on a credit-card-sized removable memory card. The card held up to thirteen images and could be transferred to Toshiba's digital audio tape (DAT) recorder. Up to to 1,600 photos could be stored on one 120-minute DAT cassette tape. Popular Science, December 1989, page 53.  We believe we were the first digital camera history web site to provide a photo and information concerning this camera.

See Popular Science, December 1989, page 53.
https://books.google.com/books?id=dwEAAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

TOSHIBA SK-3D7 -1989.  World's first first stereoscopic video camera using two lenses and CCDs.  Can be seen in the Toshiba Science Museum.

FOR MORE INFO CLICK HERE

Vivitar V-2000 description in 'Understanding Electronic Photograph' by John Larish

VIVITAR V-2000 - 1989.  Still video camera prototype called the V-2000.  Images recorded to floppy disk.  360K CCD.  Selectable 9mm f/2 or 16mm f/2.5 lens.  Auto-white balance and built-in flash. Understanding Electronic Photography, John J. Larish, 1990, p20 and p42. (Photo not available).  We believe we were the first digital camera history web site to provide  information concerning this camera.

https://www.digitalkameramuseum.de/en/prototypes-rarities/item/vivitar-v-2000

1989