New Portable Radio Takes Pictures
December 1947 Radio-Craft

December 1947 Radio-Craft [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Craft, published 1929 - 1953. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

This Air-King Radio-Camera Model A410 might be the world's first production camera-phone. This feature appeared in a 1947 issue of Radio-Craft magazine. The primary purpose for developing the unit could have been for wartime field correspondents or forward reconnaissance. I found two examples on the Internet. The one with the reddish-brown case is from the EarlyPhotography.org website; it appears to be more for personal or commercial use. The on RadioMuseum.org is an green color that would have been best for military use. A schematic is posted on the RadioMuseum.org page. Take a look at the Digital Trends story on the history of modern camera-phones (which are in essence radio-phones). There is evidently a debate about whether Samsung (SCH-V200, June 2000) or Sharp (J-SH04, November 2000) sold the first camera-phone commercially. The first camera-phone in the U.S. was the Sanyo SCP-5300 (November 2002).

New Portable Radio Takes Pictures

A new development in portable radios is this combination of a radio. and a small camera, making a single unit interesting to amateur photographers and radio enthusiasts alike.

Known as the Air-King Radio-Camera Model A410, it is a superheterodyne radio with a 1R5, 1T4, 1S5 and 3Q4 as tube complement. Batteries are a 67 1/2-volt B and two 1 1/2-volt flashlight cells, No.2 size.

The camera occupies the top 2 1/2 inches of the 9 1/2-inch case (which is 4 7/8 inches wide and 3 5/8 inches deep). It is of the common miniature box type, using No. 828 film (picture size roughly 1 x 1 1/2 inch). A 50-mm fixed-focus meniscus lens is used, with a single stop and provision for both time and instantaneous exposures. The view-finder is direct, mounted on top of the case, with the film-winding knob beside it.

The loop is so mounted in the lid that it does not depend on the hinges for contact. One heavy lead soldered to a contact in the middle of the door acts to prevent it from swinging too widely open. The other, a wiping contact, "makes" when the door is closed.

Volume, quality and sensitivity appear to be average or above the average for this type of receiver, and the workmanship on the radio is excellent. Total weight of the radio-camera is less than 4 pounds, with batteries.

Posted March 27, 2017