New Japanese camera lets you forget the film

A camera that uses no film has been developed by Japan's Sony company. It is a video still camera that uses a magnetic disk and, according to Sony, is the first of its kind.

The Mavica, priced at $660, can take 50 color pictures. The reusable disk inserted into the camera, costing $2.60, will record images that can be printed onto paper, like ordinary snapshots, or transmitted direct from the camera onto a television screen.

The camera, to be marketed within a year, converts images into electronic signals by a solid-state imager -- called a charge-coupled device -- and then records them on the magnetic disk.