Olympus VC-100
Although announced in 1988, the VC-100 was finally put in production by Olympus in 1991 as its entrant into the short-lived still-video camera category. Like other models of its type, this was not a true digital camera, but rather it recorded analog TV scan lines onto special 2" Video Floppy disks. The VC-100 supports either "frame" or the lower-resolution "field" mode, the latter recording only every other scan line (doubling the number of images a floppy could store). Olympus was late to this market; and in fact the still-video concept was already being superseded by the introduction of true digital cameras, such as the Dycam Model 1 and Logitech Fotoman. Olympus responded in 1993 with its own VC-1000, using digital image storage instead.
The VC-100's horizontal "binocular" styling was carried over from a 1988 model, the V-100 Majin[1], which seems to have remained a prototype.
The VC-100 uses a 1/2"-format CCD sensor of about 360,000 pixels resolution, and has a 10–27 mm f/2.8 power zoom lens. It was sold only in the Japanese market at an equivalent USD price of about $1,400[2].
Notes
- ↑ V-100 Magin details from Olympus company history (archived).
- ↑ "17 Top Electronic Cameras," December 1991 Popular Photography (Vol. 98, No. 12; page 109).
Links
- Early electronic cameras and VC-100 details at Olympus company history (archived)