OMEGA: 1st Olympics Photo Finish camera

In 1948, The Racend OMEGA Timer, the world’s first photo-finish camera, made its debut at the London Olympic Games. “The camera that films time” revolutionised sports timekeeping. This new device replaced the limited sight capabilities of the naked eye with a highly sensitive photo cell, while human reflexes are replaced by a lightning-fast electrical current. The principle is based on the use of a beam of light which is projected across the finishing line and back again. As soon as a runner interrupts the beam by crossing it, the stopwatches are triggered. Since all the functions are electronic, the level of accuracy is such that times could be given to the nearest 1/1000th of a second. This was a technological leap over all previous devices. Thanks to the photo cell, archaic equipment such as the finishing tape and hydropneumatic tube were no longer used.

In 1961, OMEGA presented the Omegascope, a timekeeping device allowing the time of each competitor followed by a camera to be superimposed on the TV screen image.

In 1992, the OMEGA Scan-O-Vision photo-finish system appears for the first time at the Albertville Winter Olympic Games. The new system digitally measures times to the nearest 1/1000th of a second. The Scan-O-Vision photographs time using a linear vertical recording technology.