The History of Television Through the Pages of Popular Science Magazine
"Television is going to be big, or it isn't going to be at all." The crack staff at Popular Science said this in 1944, and beyond the seeming obviousness of its either/or scenario, there's a lot to think about here.
The Jetsons promised us flying cars and sentient robots by 2062. 2001: A Space Odyssey promised galactic travel - beyond today's dinky power wheels stuck in mud up in Mars - that's now already a decade overdue. And while I've jumped into damn near 300 hot tubs since I first saw the trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine, Duran Duran is still socially unacceptable listening. Technology has totally failed us.
Except for the television. Where all other advancements have come to a grinding halt in our grayed, spark-less, impotent and crumbling-from-the-inside science and technology sector, television has, by all measures, delivered on its promise.
Looking back on 70+ years of Popular Science Magazine, we can trace the timeline of the TV as it grew from pipe dream radio descendant to the reason why people like Snookie and Dog The Bounty Hunter are rich instead of in jail. Think of it as an HD History Channel special. Just don't think of the alternative history.
September 1928 - The Real Facts About Television
Television! That was the lede, and how could they not have been excited? People were clamoring to know when they'd be able to watch "swiftly moving events." Though if they'd woken up from an 80-year coma just in time to see last week's Oscar ceremony, they'd still be disappointed. [Read the full text here.]
January 1929 - Your first Television Set
Back in the Great Depression, and before we had third world nations to do all our icky manual labor, you had to work if you wanted to watch television. Not that there was much on (and you thought winter Saturday figure skating was bad?), but if you wanted a glimpse of the future, it required sweat, a high quality radio and some neon tubes. Also, holding your thumb against a disk to keep the picture straight, and the ability to adjust motor rheostats, whatever that means. Already, we've moved way beyond this. Now you can order a television right from your television thanks to endless home shopping channels. Question: how many of you would watch TV if you had to build it? [Read the full text here.]
April 1934 - Myriads Dots of Light Give New Television
The cathode ray: the television technology for the "man in the street!" Man, they were so progressive those days, giving out TV to any old bum who wanted it. And in 1934, that was half the country. Really, this was television pointalism, with thousands of dots making up the picture. The kind of TV which us poor writers and media types still have. Suck it, plasma and LCD, we're retro-cool. [Read the full text here.]
December 1942 - Television Program Gives Housewives Hints from PSM
Before there were soap operas and Ellen Degeneres to keep the little lady occupied while she kept house, there was a gigantic, horribly sexist robot that coldly reminded women how to properly toil in domestic servitude. Oh, those were the days, a kinder and more gentler era! This very magazine broadcast 15-minute segments starring a hapless housewife who is inevitably rescued by a frightening Rosie Jetson/Ronald McDonald ancestor, who teaches the distressed woman how to take "a nail out of a door jamb without marring the wood, removing the base of a broken light without cutting or electrocuting herself, and... other feats." Forward thinking! [Read the full text here.]
August 1944 - Post-War Television
"Entertainment has remained the most important function of the mass communication services. It is important to instruct people, but in a nervous and complex civilization like ours it is even more important to amuse and thrill them." Suck it Tom Brokaw, even the Greatest Generation needed their Jersey Shore fix. Or something like that.
Here, the prediction is that with new technology, the small, poor pictured television of pre-war will blossom into a cutting edge entertainment medium, with live telecasts of sporting events and studio shows, all on a screen up to 24 inches. Technologists of the time were also predicting we'd be wiped off the face of the earth by the mighty Soviets, so let's be glad they batted .500 in the prediction game. Although many would argue the return of Leno was more or less a fulfillment of the latter prophecy.
Oh, and here's the first mention of cable, which was seen as prohibitively expensive versus broadcasting over the airwaves. Cablevision customers most definitely agreed, especially on Oscar night. [Read the full text here.]
February 1947 - Television on the Job
Not only does it bring corrupt quiz shows into the home, TV can be used to modernize and streamline industry and teach us about science stuff! Televisions used in factories help monitor workers, and direct feeding cameras dropped under the sea can help us discover things we've never seen before. Very prophetic: now when workers are fired because they've been caught slagging off on closed circuit TV or simply replaced by one guy who can monitor an entire factory, they can sit at home and watch Planet Earth: Deep Sea Caves stoned out of their minds. [Read the full text here.]
February 1949 - What You Need To Know About Television
By now, the galloping post card, as they called it (what?!), had fully transfixed the nation (and this pre-cable, mind you). "Children are transfixed into silence," they say, which I hate to break it to them, will end half a century later when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers encourages kids to act like assholes.
As a helpful buying guide, so readers can keep up with the Joneses (who seem so perfect, but really live in a trap suburban marriage that is killing them all from the inside), PSM offers a rule of thumb: a three inch screen ($100) is good for one person sitting a bit over a foot away, but it's the ten inch, $325 screen that is the hot seller. That's best for a family of three or four. If you want to entertain guests and somehow stashed money under your mattress during the war, spring for the $650 16-inch screen, which is good for an audience of seven or more sitting up to 96 inches from the screen!
Today, setting aside the wall-covering projection screen units because people who own these are assholes, the highest end TV on BestBuy.com is a 65 inch, HD LCD unit from Samsung, which will cost you a cool $4500. Which may seem like a lot, until you factor in inflation - a $650 charge in 1949 comes out to $5787 today. For a 16 inch screen, plus wooden cabinet. Then again, you can't get a combination television/record player/long and short wave radio these days. There's a surcharge on convenience. [Read the full text here.]
September 1951 - What Color Does For TV
So, wait. The world wasn't actually in black and white until the 1950s? People lived in full range of hue and television technology was simply too raw and unadvanced to capture the beautiful points on the light spectrum that colored our lives, then and now? Racial problems were more complicated than gray vs. darker gray? Well, shit. It must have been an exciting time when color TV came out.
Following the first color broadcast by CBS, a ballet whose signature pigmented moment came with a dancer's exchange of red roses for black (symbolizing death, which was a strange and morbid start), things started getting crazy for the TV consumer. Hell, you could "tell which team is which just by the colors of the uniforms," and see Ivan T. Sanderson's exotic birds' feathers. Literally, feathers of exotic birds; this was a wholesome time, so they say.
So much easier, broadcasting in color. Costumes considered by how the colors matched, not how they'd translate to black and white! Camera setups reduced 25-30 percent! It was a watershed time, and the new, color-enabled sets manufactured by a CBS subsidiary hit stores that fall. Of course, it'd take about 20 years and an uncomfortable mid-series transition in the Andy Griffith show to go fully mainstream, but without this technology, how would we fully appreciate the blanch of Edward Cullen's face when we're pummeled by the Twilight on Showtime commercial for the 400th time? [Read the full text here.]
February 1962 - Is Color TV Worth It?
What is that, you say? The proposition of color television? Ha! A mere passing trend, flashing opiates for the masses! Hardly a reason to replace the old, trusty tube and cabinet, what with its distinguished gray tones that produce classic, distinguished programming.
Wait, a 50's-era sex symbol, in flesh tones? Call up the Sears, honey, it's time to get that three man delivery/installation crew over here pronto! Oh, and have them leave the clearly labeled "color TV" box outside, right in front of the driveway, so all the neighbors can see it and hey, if they choose to do so, interpret it as a subtle shot in a hollow, passive-aggressive suburban consumer war. I'll be watching quiz shows - without having to adjust the antennae or color saturation! [Read the full text here.]
January 1973 - How 2-Way Cable TV Will Change Your Life
MITRE Corporation had a dream. Using a little push-button telephone, wired to a TV, you could retrieve news, balance bank accounts, make doctors appointments, find phone numbers and download pictures of funny puppies while masturbating to Japanese girls banging dinosaurs and keyboard-playing cats. Or something like that.
The earliest consumer internet was dawning, with "wired-city" connections laid out in Overland Park, Kansas and Orlando. Soon, everyone could check stocks and shop at home and work remotely from wired offices outside of cities. Agoraphobics and miserable suburb dwellers, this is all you!
Not sure anyone could have predicted the full breadth of the Internet's capability, but again, this is probably the only instance of the latter half of the 20th century that science was spot on. One Motorola executive even predicted Conan O'Brien's downfall and Gawker.TV, claiming the wired city will do away with the need for standard broadcast, and that we should set a date to close down all ordinary TV stations. Except for Fox News. Those viewers are still in the February 1949 section. [Read the full text here.]
December 1982 - Camera Chip Senses TV Images in Total Darkness
Infa-red camera technology: the ability to film in complete darkness. Little did they know, this is what would catapult Paris Hilton to international fame and acclaim. Thanks, scientists!
October 1983 - Hand-size, but here at last: flat-screen color TV
Here we go, the high flyin' 80's and the beginning of our descent into Japanese-fueled consumer hell! Bringing the technology from calculators to those pocket-sized, black and white UHF/VHF receiving televisions you'll now find as you clean out your grandfather's garage, Seiko and a host of industrious Japanese companies began producing the first color screen LCD TVs. Sure, they were tiny and largely impractical, but it took new types of liquid crystals and stuff to make it happen!
The Japanese expected a pretty penny for the convenience of watching a tiny, tiny screen in full color from your backyard or toilet seat - the Sony Watchman (the less successful and now embittered brother of the Walkman, natch) ran $350 ($744 in today's dollars) and the 007-inspired Seiko TV wristwatch set a giant geek back $499. [Read the full text here.]
November 1990 - Stay Tuned For Smart TV
Hate to see how they'd react to digital cable and satellite television; the SOS call from an overwhelming sea of 40 to 50 channels called desperately for help in making the increasingly impossible choice of what to watch. Bring in the robots, they had ESPN and superstations! [Read the full text here.]
Little color screens were cute and all, but the 90's were really the gateway period for our crippling (awesome) TV addiction. No longer content with paper TV listings and the Preview Channel (THEY STILL HAVE THIS?!?!), sufferers of "channelization" (this was a real ailment, apparently) needed help.
The stuff PSM predicted must have seemed straight up wacky. TV that offered digital menus of searchable programs? With the ability to record shows when asked - or even automatically? The brainpower to notice viewing trends and suggest new shows? Yeah, it came true - we call it digital TV and DVR. Now, anyone without TV like this is a social outcast, not to mention undateable.
But this is where we finally start to get disappointed by empty promises. PSM was offering visions of TV's with Apple-style icons that played CDs and uploaded album art (iTunes for TV?); and more bitterly missing of all, voice controlled DVR. If only we could be lazy enough to not even have to move our fingers to record shows we're too lazy to be awake to watch (sorry Conan!).
September 1991 - Little Dish TV
Saved by the Bell was in its campy hey-day, and rural folk would be damned if they couldn't join in with Zack and the Gang just because they removed themselves from society to the point that cable wires couldn't reach them. Even Thoreau needed Bayside.
So here came small dish satellite TV, bringing the base entertainment of regional superstations into the homes of even the boldest frontiersmen. While big satellites littered crazy people's homes since the 70s in America, the smaller dishes, new wavelengths and compression technology (boring!) was new to our shut ins and shut outs. With seven regional superstations and audio channels and access to Pay-Per-View movies, a $300 fee to buy a dish (or an installation and monthly rental fee) and a $35 monthly subscription was totally a great deal!
This was, however, an important development. The dish: how the west was won, and then reduced to a hollow landscape of boxed dinner-eating zombies crippled by years of Gilligan reruns.
November 1992 - Interactive Television
One could most certainly say that television, as we know it today, truly came of age in the early-to-mid 1990's. One would sound weird for assigning human characteristics to cold wires and theoretical technology, but nonetheless, it wouldn't be inaccurate. PSM devoted much of this issue to the TV technology that we're just beginning to fully appreciate today.
Actually, what PSM promised here was far more than what the television delivers today; some of that, like the stoner's dream of custom pizza ordering, the already-promised-twenty-years-ago online shopping and news aggregation, would be left to the internet. Add in the potential to subscribe to magazines beamed over the television, and holy crap, it's the first conceptual iPad! Suck it, Steve Jobs!
Also, digital signals began to replace the shitty "ghosting" analog broadcasts. Sure, it took 16 years, but here we are today, with clear screens (except for old people, who had the rug pulled out from under their crappy old TVs).
Finally, wide screen TVs. This was a bitch - it forced us to replace all of our DVDs because now we could see a bit more of the peripheral shot and if we didn't have wide screen, people wouldn't want to hang in our dorms and watch movies because clearly we didn't appreciate cinema enough. How else could Eternal Sunshine really be watched?
[Read the full text here.]
June 2005 - Holographic TV
So this was a misfire. Perhaps inspired by Princess Leia's desperate plea to Obi Wan bursting forth from R2D2's projector, scientists got to work bringing holograms to television. Instead of the Rebel Alliance, we ended up with Wolf Blitzer and Candy Crowley in our homes during the 2008 election. A rare misfire. [Read the full text here.]
September 2006 - TV Before Your Eyes
Let's be real here. Who wasn't beyond sick of having to strain their eyes to see a big screen a few feet away, let alone having to see things other than television shows?
Finally - Finally! - a solution to this horrible problem. TV glasses! The iCuiti iWear, released in 2005, plugged right into the video iPod to bring the look of a 35-inch TV a mere inch from a viewer's face. The catch: horrible social animus due to looking like you belong on the Starship Enterprise. But not to worry! By 2007, they'd have normal looking specs that beamed high definition video right into your eye!
That's what Lumus promised, but the technology isn't quite there yet. You still have to wear your geekiness on your sleeve and agree to abstain from any physical contact with the opposite gender to wear their TV glasses. But hey - porn beamed right into your eye, that's even better! [Read the full text here.]
March 2007 - The Other Cable TV
Internet marketplaces and set top boxes streaming shows directly from computer to television: how tech geeks are inadvertently killing traditional television, undercutting the hip shows we love and giving us more and more cheap reality TV! But, it's made by Apple, it has to be good, right?!
Ugh. Sorry Conan. And Arrested Development. And the rest of the world, for causing Jay Leno to come back. Our bad. [Read the full text here.]
This article was made possible by the wonderful free archives at Popular Science.
Jordan Zakarin is a full time web editor, freelance writer and founder of ridiculous websites WhyMyExSucks.com and SuperAwesomeIdeas.com. He's not good at telling jokes, grows patchy facial hair past three days and is available to write on any of a wide range of topics he is a certified expert in, from sports to entertainment to politics. He's appeared on television for SportsNet New York and likes to tell people that he was on PBS' Zoom as a child, though it's a blatant lie. You can find him at JordanZakarin.com.
The author of this post can be contacted at tips@gawker.tv
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Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta History. Mostrar todas las entradas
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3 dic 2010
The History of Television Through the Pages of Popular Science Magazine
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15 oct 2010
Of Niepce, the Lumieres, and the T2i, or Why HDSLRs are good for everyone.
171 years, 2 months, and 4 days ago, photography, or rather, the photographic process, was made public by the French government. This meant everyone would be able to learn and practice the art of capturing an image forever.
The following 70 years were years of great advancement in photography, both as an art, and as a technique, and as a technology.
We've spoken earlier of Eadweard Muybridge, the british photographer who proved that there's a moment in a horse's gallop during which none of its four legs touches the ground, using 24 cameras that captured an image in progression. This could be considered the first motion picture made using photography, but it would not be the last.
By the outbreak of World War I, cinematography had become a well established science and art form, aided by the invention of film photography, film perforations, and the development of fast shutter speeds, all advances that provided the basis for modern photojournalism.
For a while, nothing happened. Then, we found a way to capture images on a device mad of silicon and copper wire. The process was deemed too sloppy for photography, but we said "hey, nobody'll notice if we use it in the movies. After all, the images are moving anyway!". So, video was born. And it changed the way people looked back on their vacation forever. Fast forward 20 years, and we discover that the small silicon and copper wire devices, called CCVs, were all grown up now, and the images they could process were crisp, and beautiful. And so, we began taking pictures electronically.
And now, people are complaining because, the successors of those cameras that were able to capture still images electronically, are now also able to capture High Definition Video!
The point I am trying to reach here is that photography and cinematography are two closely bound sciences/disciplines/art forms. Without one, the other wouldn't exist, and the progress made in one field benefits the other one. It was only a matter of time before someone realized that SLRs should be able to record video. If anything, I'm surprised by the fact no manufacturer addressed the issue before. After all, SD video has been available in point-&-shoots for years.
Purism, in my humble opinion, is a no-no in photography and cinematography. Photography is science and innovation, the ultimate means of self-expression, humanity's very own time machine. Cinematography is, simply put, the art form with which most human beings identify themselves, apart from music. There's no space or time in photography for a status quo. What once was considered mediocre in photography can now be considered experimental.
This new wave of semi-pro and Pro cameras being able to capture HD with high quality interchangeable lenses is just the next step in the history of two sciences that have been evolving side by side for 120 years at the least. Getting in its way, may very well cut short the development of the next big leap in the history of photography.
8 may 2009
High Speed Photography (Part 1)
High Speed Photography is the discpline, or science, of taking exposures of extremely fugaceous moments, like a traveling bullet, or an explosion.
The first application of High Speed Photography was in 1878, when English photographer
Eadweard Muybridge was hired by Leland Stanford, a Californian businessman and owner of several race-horses to prove a higly-controversial question of the time: whether all four horse's left the ground at a certain point during a gallop. Mr. Muybridge used a combination of mechanical and chemical means to take pictures of one thousandth of a second on 12 cameras set 2o inches apart, to cover the whole 20 feet a horse transits in a horse stride. Muybridge proved that all 4 horse's hooves do actually leave the ground when the legs are tucked beneath the horse.
See you Monday!
1 oct 2008
Google 2001
Remember those days, when the Google logo was, let's accept it, crappy, and when you typed words like MySpace, or Facebook, or Twitter, or YouTube on your browser, and nothing would show up? Or maybe when Wikipedia was still lodged on the Nupedia.com domain.
Yahoo ruled, and Google was the rookie. The world was simpler. HD was still a work in progress, and digital cameras barely reached 3 megapixels, or were VGA-based. Social networking sites were in experimental phase (remember TheMakeOutClub?). Oh, and loading Games and other Flash-based internet applications would consume at least 10 minutes of your time.
Yep, those good days. You can live them again. To celebrate 10 years of existence, Google has launched a special page featuring the Google 2001 index, the oldest one they were able to dig. It even features the crappy logo, and the now-pathetic statement "Search 1,326,920,000 web pages"
Have fun searching for pages that didn't even exist in those days. Then look at the Google Chrome
and Picasa 2 iconslodged in your Dashboard or quick-access bar, and ask yourself:
"Damn, has it really been that long???"
30 sept 2008
Instant Photography a History of Magic with Light and Chemistry
Anyone who's ever worked with film roll to take pictures, and doesn't have his own dark room, knows about the terrible combination of frustration, expectation and fear one has when the roll is sent to a photo-lab to be developed. Some common expressions are:
By rubbing the image, one can achieve a blurry effect, or even a melting effect, like the one in Peter Gabriel's third album
Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston
How to Make Better Polaroid Instant Pictures.
"Was it a good picture?"
"I should have used a tripod. Do you think I should have used a tripod?"
"Damn you Nascar!! Can't they slow down just for a second???!!"
"I think I left the lens cap on..."
"It might have been overexposed..."
It's all this, mixed with the fact that everyone wants to look at the pictures of little Susan jumping into the pool for the first, that makes the developing process a loooooong one. We're talking about memories and jobs here, people!
You might remember from A (Very) Brief History of Photography, Part 1, about an early photographic development process called the Collodion process. The collodion process had many variations, although it was mainly made on glass. One of this variations was known as tintype, or ferrotype. It involved using a thin metal plate instead of glass, were the exposure would develop. Since the size of normal ferrotypes were rather "small", compared to other types of exposures, the development process was quicker. An experienced operator could finish developing the image in a few minutes. They were cheap to make, and also fast. So, one might call the ferrotype the first "instant" photograph.
True instant photography started back in 1947, when Edwin Herbert Land presented the Polaroid Land Camera to the world. Named Model 95, it would use the peel-apart instant photography system.
The exposure would be made on a negative material, which would then automatically be pressed down against a positive material. In between both, there was a small pod containing the developing agent, which would burst when both materials were pressed against each other and passed through two rollers. Original instant photographs would be sepia. In the 50's, this was upgraded to standard B&W, and in 1963, Polaroid released Polacolor, which used a process involving dye diffusion. After being developed, both halves were peeled apart.
In 1972, the Integral film was introduced. Integral film is the instant photgraphs everybody knows and loves: a gray image would come out of the camera, and it would gradually develop, right in front of you. Integral film would use a vanishing opacifier (the gray image that appears intially in the exposure, and then disappears, revealing the image) and the same development agent pod, mixed with a gelatin mixture, among other chemicals.
As well as being extremely practical, instant cameras had applications in the arts and experimentation:
In peel-apart exposure, emulsion-transfer and emulsion-lift are the two most popular techniques of modifying the exposure.
Emulsion transfer consisted on peeling the still developing image apart, and then, the negative image is rubbed on another support, while emulsion lift was made by separating the image from the print, and placed on another material, typically, watercolour paper.
In Integral films, one can manipulate the image by simply applying pressure on the still developing image. This way, one can achieve many effects done in Adobe Photoshop with his bare hands.
Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston
How to Make Better Polaroid Instant Pictures.
1 sept 2008
History of the Electric Guitar (Part 1)
Once again, I'll assume you live in this planet and in this timeline. I'll also assume you've heard to anyone of these:
Les Paul
Chuck Berry
B.B King
Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
John Mayer
Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy
Then you've definitely heard an electric guitar, and even if you've never heard any of these bands and musicians in your life, you've almost certainly heard an electric guitar nonetheless. It's present in your neighbor's garage, in the music shop downtown, and in videos on MTV. The electric guitar has been part of our daily lives for around 50 years.
To understand the history of the electric guitar, one most understand the "pickups"
Pickups are basically transducers, devices that convert one type of energy into another type of energy. Microphones and Speakers are transducers (in fact, they are the opposite of each other: one turns sonic energy into electric energy, and the other turns electric energy into audible sound).
Pickups consist of magnets wrapped in copper wire. When the magnetic strings of a certain electric instrument vibrate, they modulate the magnetic flux of the coil, creating an alternating voltage in the wire's coil. This signal is then amplified or recorded through a cable.
The first commercially succesful electric guitar was the Rickenbacker "Frying Pan", an electric Hawaiian, played as a lap-guitar. Les Paul began working with "The Log", and his guitar was introduced by Gibson in 1952. Leo Fender introduced his solid body guitar in 1950. Solid bodies have more sustain than hollow bodies, and had less feedback problems.
Les Paul
Chuck Berry
B.B King
Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
John Mayer
Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy
Then you've definitely heard an electric guitar, and even if you've never heard any of these bands and musicians in your life, you've almost certainly heard an electric guitar nonetheless. It's present in your neighbor's garage, in the music shop downtown, and in videos on MTV. The electric guitar has been part of our daily lives for around 50 years.
To understand the history of the electric guitar, one most understand the "pickups"
Pickups are basically transducers, devices that convert one type of energy into another type of energy. Microphones and Speakers are transducers (in fact, they are the opposite of each other: one turns sonic energy into electric energy, and the other turns electric energy into audible sound).
Pickups consist of magnets wrapped in copper wire. When the magnetic strings of a certain electric instrument vibrate, they modulate the magnetic flux of the coil, creating an alternating voltage in the wire's coil. This signal is then amplified or recorded through a cable.
The first commercially succesful electric guitar was the Rickenbacker "Frying Pan", an electric Hawaiian, played as a lap-guitar. Les Paul began working with "The Log", and his guitar was introduced by Gibson in 1952. Leo Fender introduced his solid body guitar in 1950. Solid bodies have more sustain than hollow bodies, and had less feedback problems.
31 ago 2008
Harnessing the Sun
In the ancient Egyptian city of Cocodrilopolis, lived the Petsuchi, crocodiles adored as gods, adored with jewelry and goldware. They were called the "Sons of Sobek", Sobek being the Crocodile god of the Egyptians. In the video game Age of Mythology, Petsuchi are gigantic crocs that use a burning glass to obliterate armies.
The burning glass is a large (in some cases very large) convex lens used to concentrate the light of the sun in a very small area, thus heating this area, and eventually, burning it (think of a child with a magnifying glass).
The burning glass technology has been known since antiquity. You may remember from an earlier post, i wrote about the Nimrud lens, the oldest known lens, a piece of rock crystal that may have been used as a burning glass.
The most well known use of a burning glass comes from the legend that Archimedes, the greek philosopher, designed and created a gigantic burning glass during the siege of Syracuse. Some people dissent form this belief, saying that it wasn't a burning glass, but a series of mirrors.
One present use of Burning glasses are the solar furnaces used in smart homes and at certain isolated populations of Andine Peru. This use a set of mirrors placed parabolically to concentrate the sun's light on an object, sometime passing through a lens to further condensate the beams.
The burning glass is a large (in some cases very large) convex lens used to concentrate the light of the sun in a very small area, thus heating this area, and eventually, burning it (think of a child with a magnifying glass).
The burning glass technology has been known since antiquity. You may remember from an earlier post, i wrote about the Nimrud lens, the oldest known lens, a piece of rock crystal that may have been used as a burning glass.
The most well known use of a burning glass comes from the legend that Archimedes, the greek philosopher, designed and created a gigantic burning glass during the siege of Syracuse. Some people dissent form this belief, saying that it wasn't a burning glass, but a series of mirrors.
One present use of Burning glasses are the solar furnaces used in smart homes and at certain isolated populations of Andine Peru. This use a set of mirrors placed parabolically to concentrate the sun's light on an object, sometime passing through a lens to further condensate the beams.
29 ago 2008
How Lenses work (part 1)
Whenever you see through your SLR's viewfinder, or on your digital point-and-shoot's LCD screen, you are using one of humanity's oldest inventions: the lens.
This last week, we've been very busy, focusing on photography and it's history, as well as the functioning of a typical SLR. We're now closing with the unknown basics of photography: how lenses work.
A lens is an optical device that transmits, refracts, and concentrates light, as well as having axial simmetry, that is, it is symmetric around an axis, so if you were to rotate the object based on that axis, the appearance and form of the object would result unchanged. Lenses are divided into two categories: Simple lenses and Compound Lenses.
A simple lens is formed by a single optical element, while a complex lens is formed by many different optical elements put together.
The oldest lens in the world, the Nimrud lens, is over three thousand years old, and comes from Iraq (formerly Persia, formerly Assyria). It was simply a piece of rock crystal which may have been used as a magnifying glass, or as a burning lens.
Lenses are regularly a portion of a sphere, with surfaces being convex, concave or planar.
When a lens has two convex surfaces, it is called a biconvex lens. A surface with a planar and a convex surface is named plano-convex. A lens with two concave surfaces is called biconcave, and a lens with a concave and a planar surface is called a plano-concave lens. There's also meniscus lens, which feature a convex and a concave surface.
Convex type lenses focus the light in a spot. Concave type lenses diverge light around an area. Meniscus lenses can be either positive or negative, depending on the thickness of the lens, and the difference of curvature between both lenses.
This last week, we've been very busy, focusing on photography and it's history, as well as the functioning of a typical SLR. We're now closing with the unknown basics of photography: how lenses work.
A lens is an optical device that transmits, refracts, and concentrates light, as well as having axial simmetry, that is, it is symmetric around an axis, so if you were to rotate the object based on that axis, the appearance and form of the object would result unchanged. Lenses are divided into two categories: Simple lenses and Compound Lenses.
A simple lens is formed by a single optical element, while a complex lens is formed by many different optical elements put together.
The oldest lens in the world, the Nimrud lens, is over three thousand years old, and comes from Iraq (formerly Persia, formerly Assyria). It was simply a piece of rock crystal which may have been used as a magnifying glass, or as a burning lens.
Lenses are regularly a portion of a sphere, with surfaces being convex, concave or planar.
When a lens has two convex surfaces, it is called a biconvex lens. A surface with a planar and a convex surface is named plano-convex. A lens with two concave surfaces is called biconcave, and a lens with a concave and a planar surface is called a plano-concave lens. There's also meniscus lens, which feature a convex and a concave surface.
Convex type lenses focus the light in a spot. Concave type lenses diverge light around an area. Meniscus lenses can be either positive or negative, depending on the thickness of the lens, and the difference of curvature between both lenses.
27 ago 2008
How an SLR works (Part 2)
Many people cite SLRs as bulky, noisy and complicated. The latter is not true, at least for anyone who reads the manual enclosed with the camera. The second point might just be true: SLRs are noisy. In fact, I rejoice in the noisiness older cameras. This post is all about the noisiness of SLRs, and why we love it!
You now know about the mirror found between the film and the lens. But I didn't tell you about the focal plane shutter. The FPS is a photographic shutter that stops light from making contact with the focal plane (film or sensor) of the camera.
Almost all SLRs feature horizontal double-curtain shutters. In slow shutter speeds, the opening curtain moves to the left, and after the necessary amount of time has passed, the second curtain (which has remained static) moves to the left side, thus, closing the focal plane again. When the shutter is recocked, both curtains move back to their starting positions, ready to be released again.
In faster shutter speeds, the second curtain starts to close before the first curtain has fully opened. This creates a slit between both curtains through which light passes. As the speed of the shutter rises, the size of the slit becomes narrower and narrower, which allows some cameras to reach shutter speeds of up to 1/8000 of a second.
The Double-Leaf shutter consists in 2 blades that are usually between or behind the lens. This system is used in the Kodak Retina Reflex series of cameras. This type of shutter synchronized with flash at most shutter speeds, and it became the favourite of studio photographers.
All this brings us back to out first point: noisiness. The SLR has to do at least 6 things when the shutter is released: first, the mirror rises, shortly afterwards, the first curtain opens the shutter, and then the second curtain closes the shutter. All this motor moving and closing and opening rattle is what makes an SLR take neat exposures.
You now know about the mirror found between the film and the lens. But I didn't tell you about the focal plane shutter. The FPS is a photographic shutter that stops light from making contact with the focal plane (film or sensor) of the camera.
Almost all SLRs feature horizontal double-curtain shutters. In slow shutter speeds, the opening curtain moves to the left, and after the necessary amount of time has passed, the second curtain (which has remained static) moves to the left side, thus, closing the focal plane again. When the shutter is recocked, both curtains move back to their starting positions, ready to be released again.
In faster shutter speeds, the second curtain starts to close before the first curtain has fully opened. This creates a slit between both curtains through which light passes. As the speed of the shutter rises, the size of the slit becomes narrower and narrower, which allows some cameras to reach shutter speeds of up to 1/8000 of a second.
The Double-Leaf shutter consists in 2 blades that are usually between or behind the lens. This system is used in the Kodak Retina Reflex series of cameras. This type of shutter synchronized with flash at most shutter speeds, and it became the favourite of studio photographers.
All this brings us back to out first point: noisiness. The SLR has to do at least 6 things when the shutter is released: first, the mirror rises, shortly afterwards, the first curtain opens the shutter, and then the second curtain closes the shutter. All this motor moving and closing and opening rattle is what makes an SLR take neat exposures.
26 ago 2008
A (Very) Brief History of Photography (Part 4)
0101000001101000011011110111010001101111011001110111001001100001011100000110100001111001
The above is binary code. If you were a computer, you'd find out the number spells out the word "Photography". That's what this post is all about: digital photography. Assuming that you live in this hi-tech world, in which we use the internet and read Multimedia blogs on Google-owned Blogger.com, then you must know what the definition of digital photography is. Nonetheless, I'll tell you that Digital Photography is a method of photography which uses numerous electronic devices to record and store an image in the form of binary data.
The story of digital photography can be traced all the way back to the first scanners, to the late 1950's. In 1957, a team, working for US National Bureau of Standards and led by Russell Kirsch, developed the first Drum Scanner. Drum Scanners use a PMT (photomultiplier tube), a vacuum tube that captures light, transforms it into electrical energy, and then amplifies it.
Then, in 1969, the Charge-Coupled Device (also known as CCD) was invented by Willard Boyle and George Smith. A CCD is a shift register, a device that transports analog signals in the form of electric charges through various capacitators. In a broad sense, a CCD is not an image sensor, but the way the sensor's information is transformed into digital information. CCD's first planned use was as a form of memory storage device in computers. However, shortly after it was invented, it was learned that CCD's could receive charge via the photoelectric effect.
In 1981, the Sony Corporation introduced the Mavica, a still camera which featured two-CCD's, and stored the images in a two-inch floppy disk. One of the CCD's captured light information, while the other captured chromatic information.
In 1986, Kodak scientists invented the world's first megapixel sensor, capable of recording 1.4 million pixels that could produce a 5x7-inch digital photo-quality print. In 1987, Kodak released seven products for recording, storing, manipulating, transmitting and printing electronic still video images.
The above is binary code. If you were a computer, you'd find out the number spells out the word "Photography". That's what this post is all about: digital photography. Assuming that you live in this hi-tech world, in which we use the internet and read Multimedia blogs on Google-owned Blogger.com, then you must know what the definition of digital photography is. Nonetheless, I'll tell you that Digital Photography is a method of photography which uses numerous electronic devices to record and store an image in the form of binary data.
The story of digital photography can be traced all the way back to the first scanners, to the late 1950's. In 1957, a team, working for US National Bureau of Standards and led by Russell Kirsch, developed the first Drum Scanner. Drum Scanners use a PMT (photomultiplier tube), a vacuum tube that captures light, transforms it into electrical energy, and then amplifies it.
Then, in 1969, the Charge-Coupled Device (also known as CCD) was invented by Willard Boyle and George Smith. A CCD is a shift register, a device that transports analog signals in the form of electric charges through various capacitators. In a broad sense, a CCD is not an image sensor, but the way the sensor's information is transformed into digital information. CCD's first planned use was as a form of memory storage device in computers. However, shortly after it was invented, it was learned that CCD's could receive charge via the photoelectric effect.
In 1981, the Sony Corporation introduced the Mavica, a still camera which featured two-CCD's, and stored the images in a two-inch floppy disk. One of the CCD's captured light information, while the other captured chromatic information.
In 1986, Kodak scientists invented the world's first megapixel sensor, capable of recording 1.4 million pixels that could produce a 5x7-inch digital photo-quality print. In 1987, Kodak released seven products for recording, storing, manipulating, transmitting and printing electronic still video images.
24 ago 2008
A (Very) Brief History of Photography (Part 3)
World War II had cost Japan millions of lives, and most of its industry and infrastructure was destroyed. Japan adopted a pacifist constitution with emphasis on liberal and democratic practices. In 1952, the allied occupation in Japan and in 1956, Japan was granted admission in the UN. This became the starting point for an spectacular economic growth in Japan for the next four decades. This is how Japanese SLRs came to be
Japan had been doing optics for some time then. Pentax (or Asahi, as it was then known) had military contracts for optical instruments during WWII. At the end of the war, the company was disbanded for three years, when in 1948 it was allowed to re-form.
In 1952, Asahi released the Asahiflex I, the first Japanese 35mm SLR. In 1954, the Asahiflex IIB became the first Japanese SLR with a return mirror.
By the end of the 1950’s, the SLR design was homogenized.
In May 1959, Canon introduced the Canonflex. The Canonflex featured a quick return mirror and an automatic diaphragm ("with Automatic Springback Diaphragm and Mirror"-1959 Canon Brochure). It was also the first camera to have Canon’s breech lock FD mount. In theory, the system made any mount a secure one. You only had to tighten the breech. When in practice, though, this turned out to be unpractical, since more time had to be devoted to attaching or removing the lenses. The Canon FD mount was used until 1987, when Canon introduced the EF lens mount, to be used with the Canon EOS cameras.
The Nikon F, releasedin March 1959, became enormously successful, and became the camera that demonstrated Japanese camera manufacturer’s superiority. The F featured Nikon’s 3-lug bayonet F mount, still used today with slight modifications to keep with the times. The F also featured many other elements that added up to its success:
1- An interchangeable prism and focusing screen system.
2- Mirror lockup, which reduced vibration, by making the mirror flip out of the light’s path just before the shutter opened.
3- A solid design, making it resistant to damage.
4- 100% viewfinder
5- It was released with a wide variety of lenses, ranging from 21mm to 1000 mm focal length.
Minolta released the SR-2 to global market the same the Canonflex and the F, although the SR-2 had been on sale in Japan since 1958. The SR-2 featured Minolta’s MD mount (still used today) along with a semi-automatic diaphragm.
Photography
Japan had been doing optics for some time then. Pentax (or Asahi, as it was then known) had military contracts for optical instruments during WWII. At the end of the war, the company was disbanded for three years, when in 1948 it was allowed to re-form.
In 1952, Asahi released the Asahiflex I, the first Japanese 35mm SLR. In 1954, the Asahiflex IIB became the first Japanese SLR with a return mirror.
By the end of the 1950’s, the SLR design was homogenized.
In May 1959, Canon introduced the Canonflex. The Canonflex featured a quick return mirror and an automatic diaphragm ("with Automatic Springback Diaphragm and Mirror"-1959 Canon Brochure). It was also the first camera to have Canon’s breech lock FD mount. In theory, the system made any mount a secure one. You only had to tighten the breech. When in practice, though, this turned out to be unpractical, since more time had to be devoted to attaching or removing the lenses. The Canon FD mount was used until 1987, when Canon introduced the EF lens mount, to be used with the Canon EOS cameras.
The Nikon F, releasedin March 1959, became enormously successful, and became the camera that demonstrated Japanese camera manufacturer’s superiority. The F featured Nikon’s 3-lug bayonet F mount, still used today with slight modifications to keep with the times. The F also featured many other elements that added up to its success:
1- An interchangeable prism and focusing screen system.
2- Mirror lockup, which reduced vibration, by making the mirror flip out of the light’s path just before the shutter opened.
3- A solid design, making it resistant to damage.
4- 100% viewfinder
5- It was released with a wide variety of lenses, ranging from 21mm to 1000 mm focal length.
Minolta released the SR-2 to global market the same the Canonflex and the F, although the SR-2 had been on sale in Japan since 1958. The SR-2 featured Minolta’s MD mount (still used today) along with a semi-automatic diaphragm.
Photography
23 ago 2008
A (Very) Brief History of Photography (Part 2)
Photography could only be made via the Daguerreotype and Collodion process exposure systems, both of which were unpractical, and required the photographer to carry a box full of toxic or potentially flammable substances around, along with the plates on which the photography was to be taken. In 1884, George Eastman created the first photographic film with nitrocellulose coated with a dry gel emulsion of silver halide salts.
In 1888, Eastman introduced his Kodak Camera, along with the famous slogan “You press the button, we do the rest”. This was true: the roll of film meant anyone could take a picture, without having to develop the picture almost immediately. In fact, the whole development process could be made by someone else. In 1901, Kodak introduced the famous “Brownie” (Henri Cartier-Bresson’s childhood favorite). The first Brownie was a simple box camera, made of cardboard, and with an initial price of $1 dollar.
In 1913, the 35 mm film format was introduced for still photography. The format was created by Thomas Alva Edison as a way to feed film into a camera through sprocket holes, when all other cameras used friction feed. Edison patented his invention, forcing his competitors to use friction feed until 1902, when a court ruling invalidated Edison’s claim, allowing any producer or distributor to use the film design without a license. The new film format was practical and smaller than other film designs, but wasn’t popular until Leica Camera introduced the Leica I, or Leica A, a precision miniature camera.
The 35 mm snapshot camera design introduced by Leica has not changed much in more than 80 years. But the next great milestone in photography came in 1936.
Single lens reflex cameras were invented 1861 by Thomas Sutton. The sole design of the SLR had been around for more than two centuries before photography was born: Artists would use Camara Obscura fitted with a mirror placed in a 45° angle, which would reflect the image into a ground glass, allowing the artist to make a realistic drawing by simply tracing over the glass.
Early SLRs were large format cameras, and not as popular as the standard View Cameras of the time. They had waist-level viewfinders, and the mirror, most often than not, had to be raised manually before the picture was taken.
In 1936, Dresden-based Company Ihagee released the Kine-Exakta, the first 35mm SLR.
Between 1936 and 1937, Zeiss started working on a 35 mm SLR. The camera used an eye level pentaprism, which allowed the image to be seen in a correct left-to-right orientation, since waist level cameras showed a reversed image. Additionally, a Fresnel lens was placed in between the ground glass and the pentaprism, thus brightening the image. This design became the conventional SLR design used today. The camera wasn’t introduced until 1949 as the Contax S, mainly because all production halted when World War II intervened.
Photography
In 1888, Eastman introduced his Kodak Camera, along with the famous slogan “You press the button, we do the rest”. This was true: the roll of film meant anyone could take a picture, without having to develop the picture almost immediately. In fact, the whole development process could be made by someone else. In 1901, Kodak introduced the famous “Brownie” (Henri Cartier-Bresson’s childhood favorite). The first Brownie was a simple box camera, made of cardboard, and with an initial price of $1 dollar.
In 1913, the 35 mm film format was introduced for still photography. The format was created by Thomas Alva Edison as a way to feed film into a camera through sprocket holes, when all other cameras used friction feed. Edison patented his invention, forcing his competitors to use friction feed until 1902, when a court ruling invalidated Edison’s claim, allowing any producer or distributor to use the film design without a license. The new film format was practical and smaller than other film designs, but wasn’t popular until Leica Camera introduced the Leica I, or Leica A, a precision miniature camera.
The 35 mm snapshot camera design introduced by Leica has not changed much in more than 80 years. But the next great milestone in photography came in 1936.
Single lens reflex cameras were invented 1861 by Thomas Sutton. The sole design of the SLR had been around for more than two centuries before photography was born: Artists would use Camara Obscura fitted with a mirror placed in a 45° angle, which would reflect the image into a ground glass, allowing the artist to make a realistic drawing by simply tracing over the glass.
Early SLRs were large format cameras, and not as popular as the standard View Cameras of the time. They had waist-level viewfinders, and the mirror, most often than not, had to be raised manually before the picture was taken.
In 1936, Dresden-based Company Ihagee released the Kine-Exakta, the first 35mm SLR.
Between 1936 and 1937, Zeiss started working on a 35 mm SLR. The camera used an eye level pentaprism, which allowed the image to be seen in a correct left-to-right orientation, since waist level cameras showed a reversed image. Additionally, a Fresnel lens was placed in between the ground glass and the pentaprism, thus brightening the image. This design became the conventional SLR design used today. The camera wasn’t introduced until 1949 as the Contax S, mainly because all production halted when World War II intervened.
Photography
22 ago 2008
A (Very) Brief History of Photography (Part 1)
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
And light was used by all: to frighten and to encourage, to blind and to lead, to destroy, and to create. And light was used to write…
The word photography comes from the Greek words phos (light) and graphis (brush). And that’s exactly what photography is all about: Drawing with light.
Photography is a complex art, being the result of a series of technical discoveries from several different disciplines. Photography involves math, physics and chemistry.
The first “photographic” device known to humanity is the Camara Obscura. Although the Camara Obscura had already been around for a while, it was Ibn al-Haytham, an Arab philosopher, who described it thoroughly in his Book of Optics (circa 1000 a.D). It was simply a box, with a tiny hole in it. The hole would let a small portion of light into the box, and strike a specific part of the back wall, usually a piece of paper, on which the artist would copy the image. As the hole got smaller, the image also became sharper, but more light would be needed (depth of field).
Then, Silver Nitrate and Silver Chloride were discovered in the 12th and 16th century, respectively. Silver Nitrate is the precursor to other silver salts, and Silver Chloride is the “magical” substance from which photographic film is made, since it turns from white to metallic- black/gray via photoreduction. Finally, in the mid-1820’s, Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor, created the first “photograph”, and 8-hour exposition from a window in Le Gras. He named this new process “Heliographie” or “drawing with the sun”.
Shortly afterward, the term Photographie was used by Hercules Florence, a French artist, to name a process similar to Niépce’s. Meanwhile, William Fox Talbot, an English inventor, had discovered yet another process to create images from a silver salt-based process. Upon reading about Niépce’s invention, Talbot made some adjustments to his process to take faster expositions to be able to photograph people. John Herschel, another English inventor refined Talbot’s negative image process (called calotype) and created the cyanotype, or blueprints. He discovered sodium thiosulphate solution to be a solvent of silver halides in 1819, and informed Talbot of his discovery in 1839 that it could be used to make pictures permanent.
In 1851, an article, written by Frederick Scott Archer, appeared on “The Chemist”. The article reported Scott’s findings on the Collodion wet plate process. Collodion is a nitrocellulose solution in ether, which happens to be also toxic and extremely flammable (another name applied to Nitrocellulose is the word “Guncotton”, because it can be used as a projectile driver, with 6 times the gas generation of black powder (in his book From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne’s mega cannon Columbiad uses guncotton to propel a cylindroconical projectile to the Moon)). The discovery of the Collodion process disposed of the albumen process on glass plates, and made the time of exposure shorter. The new process required the projection surface (glass) to be cleaned extremely well. Then, the glass would be flowed with salted Collodion, after which, the glass would be immersed in a silver nitrate solution for about 5 minutes. The plate was then ready to be exposed, and the developed in an iron-based developer. The plate was then fixed with the exposure, and varnished with a mixture of gum sandarac, alcohol and lavender. This process had to be done within minutes of each other, which meant a photographer carried the chemicals wherever he went. It is quite extraordinary there are no reports of a photographer dying in a guncotton related explosion, or from silver nitrate-related poisoning.
Then, in the late 1880’s, the dry collodion plate was introduced to replace the wet plate. By 1884, the film process was created, but it was years before it was adopted as the standard exposure process.
Photography
And light was used by all: to frighten and to encourage, to blind and to lead, to destroy, and to create. And light was used to write…
The word photography comes from the Greek words phos (light) and graphis (brush). And that’s exactly what photography is all about: Drawing with light.
Photography is a complex art, being the result of a series of technical discoveries from several different disciplines. Photography involves math, physics and chemistry.
The first “photographic” device known to humanity is the Camara Obscura. Although the Camara Obscura had already been around for a while, it was Ibn al-Haytham, an Arab philosopher, who described it thoroughly in his Book of Optics (circa 1000 a.D). It was simply a box, with a tiny hole in it. The hole would let a small portion of light into the box, and strike a specific part of the back wall, usually a piece of paper, on which the artist would copy the image. As the hole got smaller, the image also became sharper, but more light would be needed (depth of field).
Then, Silver Nitrate and Silver Chloride were discovered in the 12th and 16th century, respectively. Silver Nitrate is the precursor to other silver salts, and Silver Chloride is the “magical” substance from which photographic film is made, since it turns from white to metallic- black/gray via photoreduction. Finally, in the mid-1820’s, Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor, created the first “photograph”, and 8-hour exposition from a window in Le Gras. He named this new process “Heliographie” or “drawing with the sun”.
Shortly afterward, the term Photographie was used by Hercules Florence, a French artist, to name a process similar to Niépce’s. Meanwhile, William Fox Talbot, an English inventor, had discovered yet another process to create images from a silver salt-based process. Upon reading about Niépce’s invention, Talbot made some adjustments to his process to take faster expositions to be able to photograph people. John Herschel, another English inventor refined Talbot’s negative image process (called calotype) and created the cyanotype, or blueprints. He discovered sodium thiosulphate solution to be a solvent of silver halides in 1819, and informed Talbot of his discovery in 1839 that it could be used to make pictures permanent.
In 1851, an article, written by Frederick Scott Archer, appeared on “The Chemist”. The article reported Scott’s findings on the Collodion wet plate process. Collodion is a nitrocellulose solution in ether, which happens to be also toxic and extremely flammable (another name applied to Nitrocellulose is the word “Guncotton”, because it can be used as a projectile driver, with 6 times the gas generation of black powder (in his book From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne’s mega cannon Columbiad uses guncotton to propel a cylindroconical projectile to the Moon)). The discovery of the Collodion process disposed of the albumen process on glass plates, and made the time of exposure shorter. The new process required the projection surface (glass) to be cleaned extremely well. Then, the glass would be flowed with salted Collodion, after which, the glass would be immersed in a silver nitrate solution for about 5 minutes. The plate was then ready to be exposed, and the developed in an iron-based developer. The plate was then fixed with the exposure, and varnished with a mixture of gum sandarac, alcohol and lavender. This process had to be done within minutes of each other, which meant a photographer carried the chemicals wherever he went. It is quite extraordinary there are no reports of a photographer dying in a guncotton related explosion, or from silver nitrate-related poisoning.
Then, in the late 1880’s, the dry collodion plate was introduced to replace the wet plate. By 1884, the film process was created, but it was years before it was adopted as the standard exposure process.
Photography
11 jul 2008
46 Years of Satellite TV
10/07/1962 Hace 46 años se lanzo el Telstar 1 desde Cabo Cañaveral en Florida iniciando con esta la nueva era de comunicaciones globales intercontinentales. El satélite era propiedad de AT&T y de los Laboratorios Bell Telephone y formo parte de un esfuerzo conjunto internacional patrocinado por los Estados Unidos, El Reino Unido y Francia
El costo de envio en esa epoca fue de 3 millones de dolares aún permanece en orbita
Alta-Definicion Pelìculas Disney Super 8
Biografía de Zworykin.
http://www.buscabiografias.com/
Farnsworth
http://www.soymormon.com/
Zworykin
http://www.geocities.com/
Cronología detallada
http://www.geocities.com/
Historia de la televisión.
http://www.geocities.com/
Datos técnicos.
http://lectura.ilce.edu.mx:3000/
Artículo
http://www.alumnos.unican.es/
La evolución de la televisión
http://www.tvyvideo.com/
La historia de la televisión en España
http://inicia.es/
La historia de la televisión en Argentina
http://televisionargentina.cjb.net/
La historia de la televisión en México
http://www.cirt.com.mx/
La historia de la televisión en Chile
http://www.geocities.com/
Instituto Oficial de Radio y Televisión España.
http://www.rtve.es/
Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias de Televisión de España.
http://www.academiatv.es/
http://cajatonta.tv
Comunicación y Medios
http://www.comunicacionymedios.com/
Compañías televisivas
http://lanic.utexas.edu/
¿Quién inventó la televisión?”
http://www.physlink.com/
Invención de la tecnología televisiva.
http://www.adherents.com/
Invención y orígenes de la televisión.
http://dir.yahoo.com/
http://dir.yahoo.com/
La televisión y su historia.
http://search.about.com/
http://search.about.com/
Actualidad de la televisión
http://dir.yahoo.com/
http://dir.yahoo.com/
http://search.about.com/
http://search.about.com/
Museos de la televisión.
MZTV, USA.
http://www.mztv.com/
National Museum of Photography, Film & Televisión, Reino Unido.
http://www.nmpft.org.uk/
The Museum of Television and Radio.
http://www.mtr.org/
La televisión Mecánica
Narrow Band Television Association
MZTV
Experimental Television Society
Sonny's Show and Tell Page
The World's Earliest Television Recordings - Restored
Ian Baird's Site
Levend
Adventures in Cybersound
Henry Ford Museum Pictures
WPA Film Library
Chicago Television History
History of Televison
America's First TV Station
History of the BBC - Television Arrives
MZTV
Sonny's Show and Tell Page
San Francisco Museum
The Farnsworth Chronicles
Early British Sets
Victor's World of Television
Alexandra Palace Television Society
BBC Test Cards
History of Italian TV
Australian TV History
German TV in 1935
Levend
The Television Archives
Early RCA Television Remotes
David Boynes Collection
Steve Ostler's Vintage Televisions
Zworykin's 1933 Photo Album
History of Televison
Nazi TV
Russian TV History
Television in the Third Reich
The Dawn of Modern, Electronic Television
Envisioning the Audience: perceptions of early German television's audiences, 1935-1944
405 Alive
Dave's Vintage TVs
Pat's TV Museum
David Boynes Collection
Luc Sirois' Collection
Jonathan Evans Collection
The Dumont Network
History of Televison
CT-100 Restoration
History of Early Color Television
Fred Hoffmann's CT-100 Restoration
History of Televison
Early Color TV
Primeras cámaras de televisión
Chuck Pharis's Camera Site
Museos de televisión y radio
Auman Museum
Vintage Radio & Communications Musuem of Connecticut
MZTV
Museum of Radio & Technology
Antique Wireless Association
National Museum of Film & TV
NHK Broadcast Museum
American Museum of the Moving Image
Museos con aparatos de televisión
Smithsonian Musuem
Henry Ford Museum
South Carolina State Museum
Museum of Broadcast Communications
Indiana State Museum
16 may 2008
A Brief History of Final Cut Pro
Last time, we took a look at how edition has changed in the past 40 years. We now know what linear-edition systems are, how they worked, which was the first real non-linear edition system, and who are the big boys in the edition software game.
This time, we'll take a shot at Final Cut Pro, Mac's edition software. You've probably seen the results of using this fine piece of computer programming, although you probably don't know you have. Let me give you a hint: if you've seen Napoleon Dynamite, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Ring, Cold Mountain, Happy Feet, Corpse Bride, No Country for Old Men, or 300, you've watched only a few of the many movies post-produced with Final Cut Pro. It's a nice bunch, if you ask me...
Now for some History Class:
It all starts with Adobe Premiere. The year: 1992. The man: Randy Ubillos. Randy had created the first three versions of premiere before being given a team. Just before Premier V.5 was released, Ubillos was hired away by Macromedia to creat KeyGrip, which was to become an even snazzier video-editing software based on Apple QuickTime. Yet, Macromedia could not release the product without harming Truevision, as KeyGrip was also based in part on MS technology licensed to Truevision, and then borrowed to Macromedia. The license agreement stated that it was not to be used in conjunction with QuickTime. So Macromedia was forced to keep the product off the market until a solution was found. Afterwards, around 1998, Macromedia started focusing more and more on web applications, and they started looking for buyers for their non-web apps, including KeyGrip, which by this time had been renamed Final Cut.
Final Cut would be presented in private room demonstrations at 1998's NAB. During the demonstration, Windows and Mac versions were shown. The Mac version was working with a Truevision RTX dual stream real time card with limited real time effects.
When no purchaser could be found, Apple decided to buy the software as a defensive move. But then, Apple could not find anyone willing to buy the program, so they continued developing the software. In 1999's NAB, Apple presented Final Cut Pro, with added Firewire/DV support.
With the introduction of Final Cut Pro, Adobe remained strong on Windows, but began to lose users on Mac. since its older codebase was more difficult to maintain and enhance. In 2003, Apple announced a program for Premiere users to trade in their discs for a free copy of Final Cut Express or a $500 discount on Final Cut Pro. Later that year, Adobe introduced the successor to Premiere, Premiere Pro, a Windows-only product with a modern codebase.
Next time, I'll teach you Final Cut Pro's features, as well as file formats and introduction to start editing your videos...
See ya!!
Video and Television postproduction editing in Mexico
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