The Cole Papers, AP at Digital 94, April 1994

AP's new camera, Fast Formatter

MIAMI -- The Associated Press came to Digital '94 with words, pictures and equipment, too.

The news cooperative sought first to solve some of its own problems and then address members' issues:

The News Camera 2000, announced a month earlier, was available at the Digital '94 trade show for the photographers in the crowd to take out for a spin.

The NC 2000, co-developed by Kodak and the AP, is based on Kodak's Digital Camera Systems (DCS) 100 and 200. The striking difference between the NC and the DCS series is size: The older cameras require a shoulder pack for power and computing; the NC is entirely hand-held.

The news cooperative says it built in a larger imager array to give the NC 2000 more resolution and the ability to work in lower light. Other features include:

Capability to shoot two frames per second in bursts of up to six frames, using 12-bit color to record an image.

A quick-charge battery that can deliver as many as 700 exposures.

A built-in microphone to allow a photographer to make short recordings to go with each image.

A standard Nikon camera body, so existing lenses can be used.

Under the Nikon body is a four-inch pack containing a PCMCIA slot (space for a credit-card sized memory device) so that the NC 2000 can record as many as 75 pictures on one card.

The AP has also designed a PCMCIA card slot into its PhotoLynx system, which in one package puts an Apple PowerBook with modem and a Nikon Coolscan 35mm film scanner.

Using a PCMCIA card, the NC 2000 and PhotoLynx can be teamed at a news event to allow the digital transmission of photos from the NC 2000 to a newspapers' AP Leaf Picture Desk or other imaging system.

The AP says the NC 2000 will cost members $16,950; an NC 2000-PhotoLynx package costs $23,900.

Though the cooperative is offering the NC for sale to members, industry observers suggested that a digital camera system designed specifically for the AP's needs might be an item the cooperative would buy in quantity for its own use.

In trying to speed up some chores undertaken by the AP Leaf Picture Desk, the AP has developed a new device called the Fast Formatter.

Based on a standard '486 PC running the OS/2 operating system, the Fast Formatter connects to the Leaf Desk through a small computer serial interface connection.

The news cooperative says Fast Formatter will prepare pictures for output to printers and image recorders six to 10 times faster than the standard Leaf Picture Desk. A job that used to take half an hour could be trimmed down to four to five minutes, the AP said.

Fast Formatter compresses and decompresses JPEG TIFFs six times faster, and allows for simultaneous Gpib input and Autokon output. Multiple Gpib inputs are possible with an optional module.

Fast Formatter also lets a newspaper put a proof printer anywhere on its Leaf Picture Desk network.

The AP said the Fast Formatter costs $3500 with the newspaper supplying the hardware, and $6995 if the wire service provides both the hardware and software.

Associated Press Technology Marketing, (800) 453-8883.

-- dmc

AP's new camera, Fast Formatter

From THE COLE PAPERS, April 1994, Copyright (c) 1994, All Rights Reserved.