Sony's New Electronic Wizardry

From Japan comes the first camera that does not use film

Japan's Sony Corp. has stunned the world with an array of products ranging from the first pocket-size FM radio and the first portable videotape recorder to tummy TVs and the Walkman tape player. Last week Sony Chairman Akio Morita, 60, showed off his latest marvel: the Mavica, a still camera that looks and feels like a conventional 35-mm camera but takes color pictures without film. Morita grandly called the camera the greatest innovation in photography since Louis Daguerre invented the silvered copper plate print in 1839.

The Mavica, which will not be available to U.S. consumers for at least 18 months, records the image that comes through the camera's lens on a whirling magnetic disc about ⅛in. thick and 2 in. wide. The disc, which can be simply loaded in the camera like a film cartridge, has enough space on it for about 50 snapshots. The camera can shoot single frames or, when set for continuous action, record up to ten frames per second. After a picture is taken, the user places the disc in a small device that attaches to any television set and views the picture on the TV screen.

Sony has not yet totally mastered the new technology. Pictures taken at a demonstration in Tokyo last week were somewhat fuzzy because they could be projected on the TV screen at a rate of only 350 horizontal lines. A conventional television picture has about 525 lines. Sony predicts that the picture quality will equal that of regular television before the camera is marketed. The company is also working on a process that would produce pictures with 1,500 lines, which would make the image about as sharp as 35-mm photographs.

American firms experimenting with similar cameras tried last week to downplay Sony's breakthrough. "I can't understand all the fuss," said William Webster, vice president of RCA Laboratories in Princeton, N.J., which has developed a videotape camera that operates on the same principle. "Why would anyone want a still camera that takes pictures only as sharp as those on your TV? It's an idea we've discussed for years and clearly decided that there's no market for the product." Said Eastman Kodak Vice President John Robertson: "We expect traditional still photography to grow and continue to be the predominant form of amateur picture taking into the next decade." Polaroid says it has no plans at present to follow Sony down the route to electronic pictures.

Industry experts were puzzled by Sony's early announcement of the new camera. The company is normally a quiet, conservative firm that only unveils a product once it has been perfected. There was speculation that Sony was trying to ward off competition from companies like Canon and Hitachi, which may be about to announce another version of the electronic camera.

Sony does not expect the Mavica to replace the conventional camera any time soon. One barrier will certainly be its price. The camera is expected to sell for about $650, and the disc player will be another $220. A printer that can produce permanent pictures will cost as much as the player. But the discs, which can be used over and over, will cost only about $2.65.