Inventor Portrait: Steven Sasson from David Friedman on Vimeo.
A long while back I did a post called “a Brief History of Digital Photography” with this photo of the first digital camera. Well, now, thanks to the magic of the interwebs, here’s the creator talking a little about the invention and development process…
1972 – The first patent is filed for a filmless electronic camera by Texas Instruments.
1975 – The first recorded attempt at building a digital camera. The camera weighed 8 pounds, recorded black and white images to a cassette tape, had a resolution of 0.01 megapixel, and took 23 seconds to capture its first image.
1986 – Kodak scientists invent the world’s first megapixel sensor, capable of recording 1.4 million pixels that could produce a 5×7-inch digital photo-quality print.
1988 – Canon XapShot- (Ted sees electronic, albeit analog, camera for first time, lusts.)
1990 – Kodak shows a hacked Nikon body with a Kodak sensor at Photokina called the DCS. It was 1 MP and cost $25,000. It shipped in 1991. The first entirely digital camera is available to consumers. The Logitech FotoMan records in black and white and at less than one-tenth of a megapixel.
1991 – Kodak presents the DSC 100, which is considered the first useful digital camera for general sale. The 1.3-megapixel camera retails at $20,000.
1992 – Kodak introduces the photo CD. Leaf introduces DCB camera back.
1994 – The CompactFlash memory card is introduced
1994 – The Apple QuickTake 100 is the first consumer-oriented color digital camera. It retails at about $1,000.
1995 – The first consumer camera with a liquid crystal display on the back was the Casio QV-10.
1996 – Thee first camera to use CompactFlash was the Kodak DC-25.
1999 – The Nikon D1, the first digital SLR designed and manufactured by a single camera company is released. It is 2.7 megapixels.
(Ted takes last known photograph on film.)
2003 – Canon’s 6.3 megapixel EOS Digital Rebel is available for less than $1,000. It is the first digital SLR to make a major impact on the consumer market.
2003 – Digital camera sales exceed film camera sales for the first time.
2004 – Kodak ceases production of film cameras.
(creds to PlanetHunt.com- That’s What She Said)
