The CCJ connector (short for Camera Cable type J), also known as a J-type connector or an EIAJ connector, is the specification for a 10-pin DIN-style connector established by member companies of the

Electronic Industries Association of Japan Founded in 1948, the Electronic Industries Association of Japan (EIAJ) was one of two Japanese electronics trade organizations that were merged into the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA). Prior to the me ...

(EIAJ) in the late 1960s to interconnect various pieces of

video camera A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos, as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film. Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of other ...

equipment. Within Japanese-built video camera equipment built from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the CCJ connector was especially widely used to connect video cameras to

video tape recorder A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio signal, audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. ...

s (VTRs), especially battery-powered portable VTRs—so-called '' portapacks''—which were common before the dawn of

camcorder A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-sw ...

s, which married both the camera and the VTR.

History

The CCJ connector was developed in the late 1960s alongside the

EIAJ-1 EIAJ-1 was a standard for video tape recorders (VTRs) developed by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan with the cooperation and assistance of several Japanese electronics manufacturers in 1969. It was the first standardized format fo ...

specification for open reel video tape. Both standards enabled non-broadcast-professional enthusiasts and industrial

prosumer A prosumer is an individual who both consumes and produces. The term is a portmanteau of the words '' producer'' and ''consumer''. Research has identified six types of prosumers: DIY prosumers, self-service prosumers, customizing prosumers, co ...

s alike to use any competitor's consumer video camera equipment without having to worrying about

interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader de ...

in most cases, largely (but not entirely) escaping the

vendor lock-in In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lockin, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs. The use of open standards and alternati ...

situation present in the field in the earlier portion of the 1960s. Despite being used by many Japanese manufacturers—including but not limited to

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

Akai Akai (, ) is a Japanese brand & former electronics manufacturer, established as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo in 1929. It was best known outside Japan for its tape recorders during the 1960s and 1970s. The company became bankrupt in 2000 ...

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

, and JVC—for their video camera and tape equipment, the invention of CCJ is largely attributed to Sony.

Specification

A typical CCJ connector for a video camera has a 10-pin DIN-style plug on both ends. All CCJ connectors are keyed with a notch on the north end of the connector preventing it from being plugged in upside-down. For most black and white video cameras, a CCJ cable has separate conductors for the video signal, the audio signal, the horizontal and vertical sync signals, a remote control signal (for trigger the stopping and starting recording from the camera rather than the VTR), a +12 V DC power wire, and a ground wire. While most black and white video cameras conform to a standard pinout, not all do, and with the advent of cameras and portapacks that could record color signals onto EIAJ-1 tape, the pinouts began to diverge greatly.

References

External links

"Extinct Video Tape Recorder Connectors"
by Richard N. Diehl {{Tv-tech-stub Analog video connectors Audiovisual connectors Products introduced in 1969 Sony hardware