Still video cameras are not digital cameras

The regular camera, the one working with a film roll or film disk (Kodak Disc) was (and still is) a pure analogue device. Even the cameras, in which microprocessors and CPUs were implemented, were purely analogue (Canon AE-1). The first over the counter still video cameras appeared in the mid-1980s. The film roll was replaced by an image sensor. In other words, it was no longer the film but the image sensor (CCD, MOS) that was exposed. The storage medium used herein was the video floppy disk, invented by Sony, a small two-inch plastic disc with a magnetic data carrier. Now here's the fun part: until the appearance of the first consumer digital cameras (1990-1994), the world only referred to still video or filmless cameras (or solid state cameras) Nobody, really nobody, referred to these cameras as digital cameras at that time. These early models were all niche products and were offered on Internet sales portals and in magazines as computer accessories.

 

1995 saw the advent of the first real digital camera boom, triggered by the Casio QV-10. Digital cameras became affordable to (almost) everyone and the digital Mavica from Sony even became the first mass market digicam (market share over 40%!). From this point on, the first mix-ups appeared and the early still video cameras were wrongly called digital cameras. Some peoples opinion was (and still is today) that an image sensor is synonymous with "digital". This stems from ignorance about how an image sensor works. There are no digital components in a still video camera. From image composition to storage on the magnetic data carrier, the processes are purely analog (electrical). One could fill thousands of websites with this information and correct hundreds of Wikipedia entries, people will continue to misinterpret still video cameras as digital cameras in the future.

 

The main feature of a digital camera is the analog-to-digital converter (A/D converter). This converts the analog, electrical image sensor signals into digital data. These usually end up in a buffer memory and are then chased through the image processor and permanently stored as digital images in the internal or external memory (except for some old or cheap devices where the internal memory is emptied when the power supply is interrupted). A still video camera also lacks the analog-to-digital converter and the image processor. The scene is captured by the sensor, stored in the internal buffer and then stored either as an analog signal on a video floppy disk or on another external medium (video tape, etc.). With some still video cameras, the camera could be connected to a PC or MAC with a so-called built-in frame grabber or video digitizer card. This device captured and digitized the analog image and stored it as an digital image.