Fairchild Instrumentation Scope Camera Advertisement
October 18, 1965 Electronics Magazine

October 18, 1965 Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Electronics, published 1930 - 1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Are you old enough to remember when in order to make a measurement on a circuit board it was necessary to physically connect an oscilloscope probe to a trace or component lead? "Wait," you say, "What are you talking about? You still do have to physically connect a probe." Right you are, but 50 years from now your progeny will be asking that question, just as today I ask you do you remember when in order to get a "screen shot" of an o-scope or spectrum analyzer display it was necessary to connect a camera to the front of the CRT? Some instruments had an output port for driving a pen plotter, but getting a plotter set up and calibrated was often more work and frustration than hanging a camera on the front. Most of the cameras used Polaroid film packs to enable "instant" pictures. Getting a good image usually took a couple tries. Scope cameras were still in common use when I entered the electronics world in the 1970s. It really wasn't until the later 1980s or early 1990s that printers could be hooked up to newer test instruments with a GPIB or parallel output port.

Fairchild Instrumentation Ad

The highest precision and clarity in oscilloscope photography are insured by a long list of Fairchild design features. Pinpoint focusing at any object-to-image ratio within lens range is one. Heavy duty synchro shutters with jam-proof activation are others. With Polaroid Land Back, 6 x 10 cm field can be recorded 0.9 actual size. Option of f/1.9 or f/2.8 lens. Prices start at $350.

For specifications or a demonstration, contact your local Fairchild Field Engineer, or write to Fairchild Instrumentation, 750 Bloomfield Avenue, Clifton, N. J.

Fairchild Instrumentation

A Division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation