Still video camera
A still video camera is an electronic camera that is equipped with an electronic image sensor and stores still images in analog form on a standardized 2-inch magnetic storage disk ( video floppy disk ). The image sensor - usually a CCD -, in some models a MOS sensor - comes from video camera technology of the early 1980s. To reproduce the images, the magnetic disk is rotated at the frame rate of the video system used, which reads the image again and again and thus generates a video stream that can be reproduced on a conventional television set. Early still video cameras also required an external playback device, later models had a built-in playback option.
These cameras became popular in the late 1980s. They can be seen as the predecessors of digital cameras. The most famous models were Sony's Mavica and Canon's Ion and Xapshot cameras. The still video era began in 1981 with the announcement of the Sony Mavica, although at that time there was no standard for the still video standard. In the period between 1981 and 1994, a total of 50 models were announced and some were marketed. Since still video cameras record the output signal of the image sensor in analog form, they cannot be regarded as digital cameras. It was not until 1983 that more than 40 camera manufacturers decided to standardize the still video camera and its storage medium, the 2-inch video floppy disk. This body was called the Electronic Still Camera Standardization Committee (ESCSC).