{"id":33826,"date":"2026-03-30T01:03:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=33826"},"modified":"2026-03-29T01:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:49:19","slug":"the-progress-of-filmless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/the-progress-of-filmless\/","title":{"rendered":"the progress of filmless …"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Sony’s 1981 prototype of the Mavica camera<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. In mid 2001, member George Dunbar downed his copyright interests and investigated what was to become the digital revolution. George wrote his article titled, “The Progress of Filmless …” for publication in issue 27-2 of the journal. Many of us were unaware of the impact (and speed) this revolution would have on the industry and its cameras or on the organizations devoted to camera collecting.<\/p>\n

Around the late 1990s, a neighbour showed off his digital movie camera and its ability to save ‘stills’. It was the impetus we needed to search for a suitable “Digital Still Camera”. My wife was entranced by the Mavica from Sony and its choice of a floppy disk to save its images. I fancied the Fuji camera with its Leitz lens. At Vistek, we met Gary Perry and he introduced me to the Nikon Coolpix 900s<\/a>. Its 1.3 megapixel images were superb for that size – I went home with my first Coolpix.<\/p>\n

George’s extensive research culminated with his article which begins, “What began in the early 1980s is now recognized\u00a0as the future of photography. New digital cameras are\u00a0being introduced at a remarkable rate and there are\u00a0now hundreds of models available in the marketplace.<\/p>\n

“Today [late 2001], anyone entering the new dimension of digital\u00a0photography will have a difficult time when faced\u00a0with the overwhelming number of choices. It\u2019s\u00a0remarkable that the bulk of this revolution has taken\u00a0place only in the last decade, although the first developments were slightly earlier.<\/p>\n

“In this short space of\u00a0time, it\u2019s already evident that the beginnings of this\u00a0phenomenon are obscure history. It\u2019s my intention to\u00a0look back and review some of the highlights.\u00a0The Sony Mavica (acronym for magnetic video\u00a0camera) Still Video Camera, announced in 1981,\u00a0appears to be the first evidence of a product which\u00a0became practical because of developments in video\u00a0camcorders.<\/p>\n

At one time, home-movie enthusiasts\u00a0were captive to the 8mm film\/cameras made popular\u00a0by Kodak and marketed eventually by dozens of others. When the home video camcorder was introduced\u00a0around 1980, the change-over from film to tape was\u00a0extraordinary. Almost overnight 8 mm film stock disappeared from store shelves, movie cameras became\u00a0$5.00 relics on flea market tables and the conversion\u00a0to videotape was complete.<\/p>\n

“I believe the abandonment\u00a0of film by still photographers will be just as abrupt [we still have niche film users].\u00a0The first electronic still cameras (including the\u00a0Mavica of 1981) were called still video <\/i>because they\u00a0simply were versions of the common TV camcorder\u00a0(recording an analog signal) and built around the revolutionary charge-coupled device (CCD) technology.<\/p>\n

“The early cameras were tested by news photographers\u00a0allowing instant production of photographs for the\u00a0media, but were found wanting because of poor image\u00a0quality. The testing of improved products at events\u00a0such as the Los Angeles Olympics (1984) and the first\u00a0Bush inauguration (1989) as well as pressure from the\u00a0media representatives, eventually led to the widespread acceptance of digital photography by newspapers.<\/p>\n

“Although the first models were extremely\u00a0expensive, they were quickly adopted. This review of\u00a0the history of digital photography will concentrate primarily on the consumer camera market.”<\/p>\n

George’s fully illustrated and well researched article is in the issue 27-2 pdf file on the free members only DVD\/thumb drive. See ‘membership’ above or at right to join\/renew. Email any questions to member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our 2026 events are a great place to start or extend your collection of digital cameras. We are holding our Spring Fair on May 24th at Trident Hall. A poster and details will be pinned \u00a0to this site as the date nears.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. In mid 2001, member George Dunbar downed his copyright interests and investigated what was to become the digital revolution. George wrote his article titled, “The Progress of Filmless …” for publication in issue 27-2 of the journal. Many of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[500,34,286,105,14,279,348],"class_list":["post-33826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fair","tag-accessories","tag-cameras","tag-darkroom","tag-digital","tag-film","tag-lenses","tag-studio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33826"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33831,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826\/revisions\/33831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}