"Dennis Boone" wrote in message
...
The company I was working for in the mid-late 80s did online photos
in real estate listing systems. The images were acquired using
Sony cameras that recorded analog info on 2" microfloppy media.
The floppies were taken back to a digitizing station where there was
a player that output NTSC video. A PC with a video frame grabber
board was used to digitize the images, where they were quantized and
uploaded to the host computer. Resolution was obviously low in every
imaginable way; iirc they were 16 grey scales, and barely measured
in kilopixels. Brokers viewed the results via a simple board added
into a serial dumb terminal. Connection to the host was over dialup,
with early installs using 4800 or 9600 baud modems.

I did that too, in central PA. I started out with a Canon still video, then
we went to a Sony ProMavica still video with a setup much like you
described. The system we used had terminals called "PhotoList" and would
show the digitized photo along with the listing information. They could get
thermal prints which by today's standards were awful! Before the
photography market for the MLS dried up in 2006, I was using a Nikon D200,
18-135, and a Sigma 10-20 for intereriors. REALTORS found if they buy
their own cameras, they wouldn't have to pay photogs anymore...



I appear to have a test image or two from old backup tapes, but need to
figure out how to convert them to something useful on modern equipment.

We were also known to use the digitizing gear evenings and weekends
for other entertainment. I have some of the results printed on paper,
though the files are long gone. Quantization effects on old concert
footage, anyone?

De