Dude Where’s My LCD Shutter?
I remember in the early 1980s, cameras had just started to became more circuit boards and plastic than the gears, levers and real metal. I read a Modern Photography article that had predictions about where electronics in cameras would take the industry. Funny how you remember the strangest things at the oddest hours.
In the article, which I wished I could still find, had some wild predictions. A few did come true like the DX contacts on 35 mm film cartridges and many didn’t.
One prediction was LCD shutters and apertures. When I digested the story I thought LCDs would be a plus, they would be quite, quick and precise. At that point in time cameras weren’t allowed in the courtroom like they are today. The one camera was the benchmark by judges for shutter noise was the Leica M3 (M4 later). If there were to ever be a shutter constructed from a LCD that standard would have been rewritten. SLRs were allowed, but they had to be covered with muffling device called a blimp.
The LCD panels I would purchase at Radio Shack for projects did not seem able to block all light. I knew that would be one hurdle camera makers were going to jump before LCD shutters were a reality. The diodes needed to be placed together much closer than they were by 1980′s manufacturing processes.
When did LCDs dropped out of the conversation of camera construction? I don’t know. I wished there one authority I could go to ask. That is going to bother until I remember something else.
The one thing I don’t remember being forecast in the report was the digital camera.
LCD shutters can’t block light that is off-axis so they are no good for camera shutters (the light entering the aperture is divergent, it would have to be collimated for the shutter to work).
There are other digital optical switches such as DLP mirrors, but none of them will entirely block the incoming light (for example look at the contrast ratio of a projector).
Thanks for the info. In the 80′s when I read that article I found it hard to swallow that the L.C.D.s that were on the market at that time would ever be able to do what the magazine predicted.