A Quick History Of The Camcorder

It’s pretty hard to imagine a life without camcorders today. Like it or not, the camera is taking a major part in our daily lives. After all, this is the reason why movies and TV shows are not a thing. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to see the faces of our loved ones from far away or take all these selfies we so much love to put on our social media accounts. Let’s go through the history of the camcorder.

The camera recorder has given birth to many industries that now have gotten huge. As we’ve mentioned before, there wouldn’t be any movies if not for the camera, but how about the adult industry for example? The adult industry heavily relies on the internet, and the camera is essential. From videos to camgirls, and even escort classifieds and escort directory are now making use of the camera.

Not only that, but this device is heavily present in technology advancement. For instance, cars are full of cameras nowadays, doctors now use cameras to better diagnose their patients, and even toy manufacturers are now starting to implement cameras in their products.

However, just like any other device that we currently use on a daily basis, the first cameras are totally different than the ones we are familiar with today. And that’s what we are going to talk about in this article. We are going to take a look at the history of the camcorder.

The 1900s

Believed it or not, the camera’s origins date all the way back to the early 1900s, when a Scottish engineer created a device he called the “Nipkow Disk”. As you might have guessed, unlike the cameras we are now accustomed to, this one was anything but digital.

It actually was a mechanical device that has a rotating disk with holes that were cut into it. The rotation of this disk caused the images to break down and morph into what we now call “scan lines”.

The 1930s

The 1930s were the years were television started to take off. So, naturally, cameras did too. This is the period where camcorders started to take a more similar shape to what we are used to today.

By that, I mean that they were no longer mechanical, but rather electronic. As opposed to the earlier version of the camera, this device used electron scanning technology.

The 1980s

Now we have gotten all the way to the late 20th century. This period is very important for the history of the camcorder because this was the time a proper one was invented. A man by the name of Jerome Lemelson received the patent for the camcorder in the year 1980, and just a bit later it actually became a thing.

By this time, cameras were big, bulky, and very expensive things that were mostly used by television broadcasters. However, Lemelson brought the camcorder to the masses, making it affordable for just about anyone.

In 1982 Sony announced the launch of the first-ever camcorder, and it hit the market in 1983. Soon after, many other companies followed suit. JVC, for example, made a camera that used smaller tapes, the “VHS-C”, where “C” stands for ”compact”.

That’s when the popularity of this device has skyrocketed, and the camcorder evolved more and more by each day that passed by.

The 1990s

The 1990s was the dawn of the digital era. A period that would shape the future. In 1995, Panasonic and Sony gave birth to digital recording. These two companies were the spark that ignited the evolution of the digital camera, eventually leading to the device that we now use every day.