The history of digital photography.

We have enjoyed the benefits of visual and audio electronics for years, but these past few decades, we have transitioned from analog to digital electronics.For example, we used to listen to music using phonograph records and 8-track tapes.Although cassette tapes and phonograph records are still in use, they have largely been replaced with their digital equivalent, the compact disk, or a digital file on a computer. Only very recently has digital photography surpassed film photography as the preferred method of photography.

What does "digital" mean anyway?Simply put digital means numbers, lots and lots of numbers.In the case of digital photography, a digital image is broken down into tiny dots called pixels.Each pixel has a color.This color is represented as a number in computer memory.The more pixels you have, the sharper and clearer your image will be.This means more little numbers stored on your computer.But don't worry; disk storage and memory are becoming very affordable.

When did digital photography begin?Television in the 1950s was an analog media.But the very first video recorder copied a television image onto magnetic tape as electronic impulses.Bell labs invented the CCD, (charge-coupled device), which is the main sensor in digital cameras that makes digital photography possible.They were trying to invent a way to make a camera phone.In the space industry, digital photography was developed at the same time that computer technology was developing.This made sense because satellites could transmit the digital information back to the ground, much the same way you would send a picture from your cell phone to your friend's cell phone.It was not practical to load and retrieve film from the satellite.

In the 1970s, Kodak and Sony invented the first digital cameras intended for home use.However, digital cameras, when first sold to the public, were more of a novelty item, and not practical as a serious tool for photography. It would not be until the late 1990s before digital photography would be taken seriously by consumers.

Why did it take so long for consumers to be able to buy digital cameras?Digital camera technology is tied to computer technology.Besides the light sensors, there is not a lot of difference between a digital camera and a computer.They both have memory, operating systems and displays.As computer technology improved, so did the technology and affordability of digital cameras.It really comes down to economics rather than technology.Even though scientists know how to build something, it takes a lot of money over a long period of time to develop a really good product which will satisfy the needs and wants of the public.The first consumer models of digital cameras were much larger than today's models.The camera manufacturers knew that people did not want to carry around a large device to take pictures, so in addition to affordability; small size was a very important objective.So, over the years, digital cameras have become smaller and smaller, more and more affordable, and at the same time better and better quality.

With the popularity of the World Wide Web, the demand for digital pictures increased dramatically.Although image scanners existed, the ability to take a picture and upload it to a computer so that it could be published to the web is exactly what the public wanted.No longer do pictures need to be confined to a photo album in the attic, or to wait until they are developed.With the World Wide Web, digital images can be made available to anyone who accesses the web site onto which a digital image is posted.