Digital recorder captures color

By Andrea Baker, Associate Editor -- Design News, January 22, 1996

A new digital film recorder from Polaroid Corp., Cambridge, MA, produces high-quality color images from a computer.

Made by Polaroid's Electronic Imaging Systems group, the ProPalette 8000 offers 8,000 lines of resolution for 35-mm positives and negatives with accurate colors, say Polaroid engineers. The recorder is compatible with Macintosh and Windows™ operating systems, and creates 24-bit images with 36-bit-per-pixel precision. It prints in 16.8 million colors from a palette of 68 billion colors, engineers report.

With a suggested retail price of $13,995, the ProPalette "sets a new price/performance standard in the mid-range color film recorder market," says Annabel Verches, vice president of Electronic Imaging Systems.

The system features an internal 7-inch cathode ray tube, auto exposure, color-balance controls, and custom optics. Its 35-mm camera-back automatically loads and rewinds film, and a 20-character LCD front panel simplifies set-up and provides system status information for easy operation. The panel displays data on film speed, number of remaining frames, output resolution, exposure time, SCSI ID setting, and firmware version, and can be accessed via a key pad.

ProPalette interfaces via a parallel or SCSI interface. Plug-in modules for Adobe PhotoShop are included in both the Macintosh and Windows kits. The system weighs 34 pounds and measures 11 × 28 × 8.5 inches.

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