The RC-701 became the very first Still Video Camera marketed, when it went on sale in July 1986.
The RC-701, had 780 pixels horizontally and recorded its images on a special floppy disk. This floppy disk was a format standardized by the industry and could record 50 image fields.
The RC-701 was a 10 fps (frames per second) high-speed shutter-priority and multi-program automatic exposure camera. Exposure data and camera information was concentrated on an LCD panel and many functions to provide smooth, efficient photography were included.

Apart from 3 newly developed dedicated lenses (2 zoom lenses: SV11-66mm f/1.2, SV50-150mm f/2.8 SV lens, and 1 wide lens: SV6mm f/1.8), the RC-701 was able to use over 60 types of Canon's 35mm SLR camera FD lenses through use of an adapter, as well as utilize A-series and T-series camera flash systems.