1969- George Smith and Willard Boyle create charged coupled device (CCD)
1970- George Smith and Willard Boyle of Bell Laboratories built the first solid-state video camera
1972- a Texas Instrument employee, Willis Adcock, patented a film-less camera however the technology was still not available to make it a viable concept
1973- Fairchild Imaging produced the first commercial CCD imager. This 10,000 pixel sensor (100 x 100 pixels) would become the foundation for the rapidly developing world of digital imaging
1975- Bell Laboratories demonstrated the first CCD video camera with enough resolution to use for broadcast television. The CCD technology first developed by Bell Labs is found in all kinds of digital imaging devices today, including High-Definition television and video cameras.
1975- Eastman Kodak engineer Steven Sasson patented a prototype digital camera using the recently invented Fairchild CCD image sensor and a lens from a Kodak movie camera. (Image to the left)
1977- Konica introduces the point-and-shoot Konica C35 AF the first mass-produced camera with autofocus.
1978- Leica demonstrates the first SLR with fully operational autofocus at the Photokina photography show.