TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/022089/02208900.004

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 4KB | 69 lines

TECHNOLOGY, Page 81

Video Snaps For Grandma?

The Japanese try to widen the market for electronic cameras


    When Sony Chairman Akio Morita unveiled in 1981 a prototype of
the first camera to capture images on electronic sensors rather
than on film, he billed it the greatest breakthrough since
Daguerre's silver-coated copper photographic plate. With Sony's
still-video camera, photographers could instantly display their
snapshots on ordinary TV screens. But when it finally came out in
1987 with a price tag of about $7,000, the product did not exactly
overwhelm the marketplace. Except in a few specialized applications
in business and journalism, the filmless camera virtually
disappeared.

    Now Japan's camera makers are ready to try again, this time
with improved technology and prices aimed at a broader consumer
market. At the Photo Marketing Association's big annual trade show
in Dallas this week, Sony and Canon will introduce a pair of
palm-size, lightweight still-video cameras that will sell for less
than $1,000. Each model can take and store up to 50 shots on
erasable, reusable 2-in. floppy disks. When plugged into a
television set, the new systems display images that are about as
sharp as conventional TV pictures. They are expected to arrive in
U.S. stores this spring, and before the year is out they could be
joined by models from Konica and Fuji.

    All still-video cameras operate on the same basic principle.
Light passes through a lens and strikes a flat electronic wafer
called a charge-coupled device, which converts the image into
electronic signals that are stored on a floppy disk in the same
manner that a camcorder records the individual frames of a video
movie. Once an image has been captured, it can be displayed on a
TV, printed on paper or transmitted over telephone lines anywhere
in the world. But whoever receives the images must have one of the
cameras or other special equipment to view the pictures.

    It is the ability to store and transmit images that has made
still-video technology attractive to professionals, from architects
to fashion photographers. Real estate brokers, for example, use it
to show pictures of houses to clients in distant cities. Among the
biggest consumers have been news organizations, which use the
cameras to cover everything from sports events to political
conventions. When the Oscar for best picture is awarded in late
March, USA Today plans to capture the moment with a professional
Sony still-video system and transmit the pictures to printing
plants in minutes. The shots will not be as sharp as those taken
by conventional cameras, but, as Frank Folwell, the publication's
assistant director of photography, puts it, "for a newspaper with
a deadline to meet, it's the alternative to having no picture at
all."

    The availability of new, cheaper models is likely to spur sales
in business markets, but whether the technology will be attractive
to the ordinary shutterbug is an open question. Proponents argue
that still videos are simpler to store than slides or color prints
and more easily edited than videotapes. The manufacturers envision
video-generation consumers exchanging floppy disks by mail and
giving video slide shows to friends and relatives. Says Sony's
Hiroshi Yasuo: "We believe it will become a big business."

    U.S. analysts are dubious. Between Polaroid cameras and
one-hour photo-developing shops, whatever market there is for
instant photography would seem pretty well saturated. "I don't
imagine this is going to be a major new product category," says
George Hersh, a photo-industry analyst at Daiwa Securities. "The
general habit people have is they take pictures, make prints and
send them to their parents or grandparents." As Hersh points out,
grandparents may not want to buy a $1,000 camera system just to see
some snapshots.