SONY MAVICA ELECTRONIC CAMERA - 1981.  A new era In photography begins.   On August 25, 1981, at a packed conference in Tokyo, Sony unveiled a prototype of the company's first still video camera, the Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera).  It recorded images on two-inch floppy disks and played them back on a TV set or Video monitor.  The Mavica was not a digital camera, but a TV camera capable of writing TV quality stills onto magnetic disks, with a shutter that would allow it to freeze frames within the limits set by twin-field interlace making up the complete frame.  The Mavica was a single lens reflex with interchangeable lenses.  The original Mavica was provided with three bayonet-mounted lenses: a 25mm f/2, a 50mm f/1.4, and 16-65mm f/1.4 zoom.  CCD size was 570 x 490 pixels on a 10mm x 12mm chip.  F/stop was controlled manually according to lighted arrows that appeared in the viewfinder.  Light sensitivity was rated at ISO 200.  The original Mavica had only one shutter speed, 1/60th second.  Each image was recorded in its own single circle on the floppy disk that Sony called the “Mavipak.”  Up to fifty color photos could be stored on one Mavipak.  Multiple exposure of 2, 4, 8. or 20 images could be selected.  The Mavica was powered by three AA-size batteries.  Images were displayed on a television set and were considered to be equal in quality to the maximum capability of a TV set of that time.