Kyocera DA-1 (1996)

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It's 1996, still video is pretty much dead by now. No new products have been released for some years. Only in the medical and scientific field complicated SV setups are still being used. All of a sudden Kyocera announces the DA-1. A hybrid digital camera and the only one of it's kind. Also Kyocera's first digital camera ever. What's so special (or weird) about this camera is that it's a complete still video camera but with an A/D converter onboard. This means that the images are digitized inside the camera and stored digitally on the video floppy disk. The next question everyone should ask now is... why? Video floppy disks sales are down, no new devices are being built, the Kyocera disk is incompatible with any piece of still video equipment, there is no reader available for a digital video floppy disk plus the capacity on the disk is still limited to 50 images.

 

Ok on the positive side I must say that the looks and feel of the camera is of a very high quality. It's compact yet sturdy, it has an optical viewfinder, lens cover, automatic white balance, automatic exposure control, built-in flash and a status display. The camera was powered up by two CR123A batteries and had internal playback capabilities. It also featured a digital connector but to use this one needed a proprietary cable. Although it was a digital camera, Kyocera only referred to it as an "electronic camera". Seen from a historic point of view this is exactly what still video cameras could have turned into when they would have evolved further. It's the perfect transition camera between still video and digital technology.

Apart from this information nothing else is available on the internet. This rare and exotic hybrid camera should be in everyone's collection as it is a one of a kind camera, completely unparalleled.