Canon RC-701

Canon RC-701 image by Dwilliams851 (Image rights)

This 1986 model from Canon was the first commercially-marketed "still video" camera, although it followed the 1981 announcement by Sony of the Mavica. While the RC-701 anticipated the coming rise of DLSRs, it was not truly a digital camera, as it stored images as analog scan lines onto 2-inch video floppy disks. This required a special player to view or print images, of which 50 would fit on a disk.

The list price was 390,000 yen ($2,458 in 1986 US dollars—equal to over USD $6,700 in 2023). The price shot even higher if the optional 24mm-equivalent wide-angle lens, telephoto zoom, printer and telephone transmission unit were added.

Soon Sony would join with its own still-video model, the premium Mavica A7AF.

Links

• Canon RC-701 at Canon's Camera Museum
• Canon history 1976-1986, "Development of Still Video (SV) Camera" at bottom of page; from the Canon Camera Museum History
• "Electronic Camera Arrives" by Steven A. Booth, September 1986 Popular Mechanics magazine, page 56; via Google Books
• More views of the pictured camera from bambi851 on Flickr

In French:

• Canon RC-701, le reflex précurseur des reflex numeriques from argus-photo.fr/ (archived)