European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 07, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Cd players make music out of pits t a amps fila the outside of a compact disc player gives Little indication of How it produces new York times among the millions of people now owning a cd player Many have Only a fuzzy notion of How one the old record turntables it was a lot easier to understand the Basic principle of operation. You could practically Tell by looking at it. The relation Between the Needle and the record Groove seemed self evident. By contrast the digital transformation of sound into numbers and Back again is much harder to imagine. Of course it is hardly necessary to understand the theory of a cd player to appreciate the sound. But knowing something about the Anatomy of a cd player definitely adds to the pleasure of owning one. All such players regardless of make or Model share the same Basic principles. Scanning the exposed underside of the cd is a Small laser roughly the size of a Vitamin Pill. It Aims a thin Shaft of Light at the tiny pits etched into the mirrored Metal of the disk just beneath its transparent surface. These pits change the Angle of reflection from the Mirror a and these changes Are detected and counted by a Light sensor. The count adds up to the digital numbers that represent the sound Waves of the recorded music. These numbers in the form of digital pulses Are then relayed into a digital to analog converter. The converter translates these numbers into an audio signal that can be amplified and played through loudspeakers. It is mainly the accuracy of this translation that photograph Carl Kramer Washington Post a though not much of a camera Buff i do like to take pictures of various family affairs. I prefer to use the Small 110mm pocket camera As i find the film easy to Load and i have no desire to use a 35mm camera. They seem so technical and i done to think i could handle one. Yet in looking for a new 110 camera i hear horror stories about them. I done to know what to do. Is there a Good 110 out there a / \ a there Are several Good 110 cameras still made. I have looked at the Viviar and Kodak and they seem to be Fine. In a told that Keystone makes a Good 110, As does Ansco. Determines the Quality of a player and accounts for the sonic difference Between models. There Are several kinds of analog to digital converters and their nomenclature is confusing even to engineers. Who can Tell i bit from one bit or bit Stream probably Only a specialist in digital Chip design. It All seems a Long Way from music. Unless a listener enjoys delving into such digital details All that one needs to know is that these terms refer to various ways of translating the digital count into such musical factors As pitch loudness and timbre. A great Deal of research and experimentation is still going on in refining the translation methods. As a result of improved analog to digital converters the latest generation of cd players has overcome the initial shortcomings of digital sound. For example a certain harshness and Strid ency that marred cd sound in its Early years no longer plagues today a better models. The sheer amount of calculation that must be done to translate numbers into sound is astounding. However i would try to persuade you to look at some of the 35mm cameras. In a Price Range competitive with the 110s, you can get a full sized camera that uses full sized film and is almost As easy to handle As a 110. They Are fully automatic in nearly Everyway. In some such As the Fuji discovery 60, you just drop the film in and the camera loads itself. A i found that the Quality of full Frame 35mm is much better than the 110 size a so much better that its Worth the Small amount of extra Money and Effort. A is there such a thing As a viewer for 35mm negatives i have an awful time picking out which negatives go with which prints. So when i want prints made from my negatives i Strain my eyes fray my nerves and lose my / \ a there Are Many viewers for 35mm news. Most Are tubular monocular that look somewhat like a jewelery a Lens. Most camera stores have them in varied designs. Some Are about 5 billion bits must be processed to play an hours Worth of music. And if As often happens some bits arc skipped due to imperfections in the disk the cd player must sense the loss and compensate for it. This must be done so quickly that the ear never senses anything amiss. As if All this weren to enough the player has still More split second chores to do. While scanning the disk the laser must follow the exact path in which the signal pits Are Laid out so that the Light always Falls upon them at the proper Angle. To stay on track the laser is guided by a mechanism that senses any deviation from the proper path and makes instant corrections. Considering the fact that the turns in the spiral signal track Are separated by Only about 0.00064 of an Inch there Isnit much leeway. All of this performed by machines some of which Are Small enough to slip into ones pocket surpasses anything that could have been envisioned by most a decade ago. Opaque and some Are Clear at the base. They Range in Price from about $8 to $75.1 have found Over the years that a four Power Glass works Best. Eight Power is too Strong and the acc Power is too weak. I have several and my current favorite is made by Schneider. Its very Sharp and extremely Brilliant. Its great for viewing color and Black and White. A can you Tell me if the marvelous 4 x 4 pm sup slide is finished for Good or is it possible to still buy 127 slide film a / \ a i spoke with an expert at Kodak and he told me that the 127 sup slide film is no longer made. You can get 127 in Kodak Gold 200 print film and then have your negatives converted onto 120 slide film. You la get the same size image which can then be trimmed and mounted. And although the 120 film is slightly larger than the 127, the conversion can be made to the exact size desired. October 7.1990 sunday in plus c
