Hitachi SVC (1984)

The Hitachi Still Video Camera prototype was presented, not demonstrated, at the ICCE Show 1984. According to Hitachi the camera featured a MOS sensor rather than a conventional CCD. Would the camera therefore have been marketed it would have been the first SVC with MOS imager and not the Casio VS-101. Hitachi also showed a line of peripheral devices such as a playback adapter, video floppy recorder and color printer. The color video printer could provide high-quality hard copies from a variety of video signal sources in about a minute, each 3-by-4-inch print offering 64 contrast levels and a resolution of 153 dots per inch.

Until late in 1985 Hitachi was considered to be the first company that could market a still video camera. The reason why no company had market a camera so far was the cost. A regular still video camera would cost between $800 and $1000. The peripheral devices such as a playback/recording device, a printer, an image processor would cost another $2,000. The quality was at best average. Therefore there was not really a race of bringing a device to market.