Executive Summary Cameras have been in history for a long time starting back in 1558 with the pinhole camera until the present day with digital cameras. The first photograph took eight hours to develop, now-a-days to get a photograph developed it only takes seconds. As technology progressed so did digital cameras. The general idea for digital cameras was actually used to film television in 1951. Even NASA used a digital signal to map the moon‟s surface back in 1960. Sony did develop a digital still camera, while this was not a true digital camera they were getting closer. This particular camera took freeze frames, they came out with it in 1981. Apple paved the way for digital cameras by releasing QuickTake 100 in 1994. After that other camera companies followed suit by releasing their own versions of digital cameras. Digital cameras are very common for people to own now. A good digital camera will cost about a hundred dollars and as time goes on the price will get cheaper. Companies will continue to make advances with digital technology and will therefore apply it to digital cameras making them better than ever for the future.
Digital Cameras
27
Digital Cameras The history of digital cameras actually begins with photography, which is Latin for “to write or draw with light”, (Marples) which is much different than the association of the word photography in today‟s world. An early camera that first was recorded and became a phenomenon was a pinhole camera and can be traced back to 1558; the pinhole camera was called the Camera Obscura. The camera was more of a drawing tool to make portrayal of objects clearer and more realistic. This camera only kept the image for a temporary time. (Haslego) The next feat for photography was to be able to store the images that were created. In 1727, Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that silver nitrate darkened upon exposure to light. (Bellis) This allowed a French inventor, Joseph Nicephone Niepce in 1814 to be able to develop the first photograph that took eight hours to develop. (Marples) This process seemed to have a purpose but it was when Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was able to create the first image that was fixed and did not fade and needed about thirty minutes of light exposure in 1837. (Bellis) Cameras begin making their mark on the power of visual communication during the 1840s when the use of photographic images in advertisements first stared appearing. (Haslego)
As study of photography increased the processing of the actually pictures took less and less time. Instead of taking up to eight hours or even thirty minutes of light exposure to produce a single picture the process began to only take a few seconds, when Frederick Scott Archer discovered a new technique in 1850. By 1889, Kodak developed photographic film and made it available in rolls for mass amounts of consumers. Since Kodak created film that was available to
Digital Cameras
37
the general public, by 1913, the thirty-five millimeter still camera was created, and then in 1927 the flash bulb was created which allowed photography to continue to grow. (Haslego) At this time the only film that was available was black and white. Kodak began producing a new film which was called Kodacolor negative film between the years 1935 to 1941. Producing pictures from the negative soon became unnecessary when Polaroid introduced a new camera into the market in 1963, which was instant photography. This became an instant success, which begin to pave the way for the digital cameras. (Haslego) The developments during the 1900‟s simplified the whole process of photography and made it accessible to one and all at affordable prices and the camera industry denizens of our times made it into what it is today. In 1975, Kodak experimented with digital imaging, which turned out to be a success; however, the digital camera for the home consumer market would not be launched until another twenty years. (Haslego) As technology increases and digital cameras become more popular, the camera that takes film will always be a part of the long history for what we have today. The general idea of the digital camera has been around since we started recording television shows. In 1951, was the year the first digital tape record was introduced and it incorporated the same basic idea that would be used in a digital camera; converting images into electronic impulses and saving it on a magnetic tape. In 1956, Charged Coupled Device (CCD) was invented to measure the intensity of the light and color. With many other companies moving ahead with their technology, it became the end of analog camera technology. In the 1960s, NASA developed the first use of the digital signal and used it with their probes to map the surface of the moon. NASA was very advanced at this time and began using computers to enhance the digital images received from the moon. The digital camera technology was
Digital Cameras spreading like wild fire through the government and the consumer industry. The government
47
used the digital imaging in spy satellites. Texas Instruments patented the first film-less camera in 1972. By 1981, Sony had developed the first digital still camera that was available for the consumer marketplace. The Sony Mavica, a still camera, recorded the images on a mini disc; however, the Sony Mavica was not a true digital camera, it was a video camera taking freeze frame pictures. The true digital camera would not come until later. Kodak has been using many solid state image sensors since the 1970‟s. In 1986, Kodak came out with the first mega pixel sensor. This sensor is capable of recording 1.4 mega pixels, which is capable of producing a 5x7-inch digital photo quality print. Kodak would continue to produce products for storing, transmitting, recording, manipulating, and printing electronic still video images. By 1991, Kodak came up with the first professional digital camera aimed at the photojournalist. The first digital camera for the consumer was the Apple QuickTake 100 (1994) which was actually produced by Kodak. There was also the DC40 (1995) Casio QV-11 (1995) and the Sony‟s Cyber-Shot Digital Camera (1996). These cameras worked with the home computer via a parallel cable. In 1995, the first digital-still camera that was capable of recording sound and movies was the Ricoh RDC-1. The Ricoh RDC-1 was one of the first digital cameras with an LCD screen; most of the specs on this camera are used as a baseline for the compact cameras of today. The PowerShot 600 was the first compact digital camera that was capable of recording pictures on a hard disc drive. These two cameras would start what would be standard features in many cameras.
Digital Cameras
57
Digital cameras are becoming more and more of a standard now and it is not uncommon for just about everyone to own one. The technology is getting cheaper and getting smaller it was not uncommon to pay well into the thousands of dollars and now you can get a digital camera for fewer than one hundred dollars. Many companies are just reinventing the wheel with digital cameras, such as moving the LCD screen around or making it pivot, they are even making them credit card size and are also found on cell phones. As pixels go up the price will keep coming down. According to Business Week in 2005, sales of digital cameras were expected to spike and then in 2007 the sales were expected to drop. The reason behind this was that consumers would be using cameras in cell phones and other electronic devices. This might make standalone point and shoot digital camera sales drop but the availability of digital cameras will increase in other electronic devices. Since digital cameras have long rich history we decided to do field research on the subject. We conducted a survey to research what people thought about digital cameras and the way they use digital cameras. The survey was fifteen questions long and they were handed to the subjects to fill out themselves. Sixteen people total filled out surveys, seven males, and nine females. All of the subjects were either in college or attended in the past. The ages of the subjects were between seventeen and fifty-one; all of them have used digital cameras before. Thirteen people already owned digital cameras. Most of the subjects found that digital cameras were easy to learn to use and the average answer of how often they use their cameras was „once a week.‟ Most of the subjects also thought that it was easier to get prints from a digital camera and that the picture quality was better than a traditional camera. Like most things, people did find problems
Digital Cameras with digital cameras like; it‟s expensive, one must still go to the store to get prints, it‟s too complicated for the older generation to learn, it eventually breaks, the batteries run down to quickly, one does not get the film-look, and sometimes the prints still look „pixelated.‟
67
Almost all of the subjects agreed that the future is very bright for digital cameras and it will continue to expand. Some even went on to say that it will replace the traditional camera and film. All together the subjects named seven different cameras that they owned, Cannon and Kodak were the most popular followed by Polaroid. The research results of this survey follow the same pattern as the research results of the past. Most people seem to be consistent with the idea that the digital camera is here to stay and that it will continue to get better and better. Our research results have strengthened this idea and have propelled it forward into the new digital age. Conclusion The idea of a camera has been around since 1558 and has continued to grow. As technology has continued to improve items in our everyday life it has improved the camera to what it is now. Almost everyone in the poll has or has access to a digital camera. The use of the film type camera might not be in use as much today as in the past but the film camera is what made it possible for us to have the digital technology that we all use today. As the technology increases so will the digital cameras; therefore, the future looks only bright for the digital cameras; however, the digital camera we know today will most likely change.
Digital Cameras References Bellis, Mary. (n.d.) Photography Timeline. Retrieved April 5, 2008, from http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Photography.htm Business Week, (2005, September 25). Shutter Sputter. Retrived April 9, 2008, from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/tech_stats/digicam050928.htm Haslego, Christopher. (n.d.) History of the Camera. Retrieved March 31, 2008, from http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-the-Camera&id=18736
77
Marples, Gareth. (n.d.) The History of Digital Cameras – A Short but Bright Picture. Retrieved on March 31, 2008, from http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-digital-cameras.html Bellis, Mary. Report on: History of the Digital Camera. 2008. Retrieved: 31 Mar. 2008 http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldigitalcamera.htm>. Trenholm, Rich. Report on: History of the digital camera. Retrieved: 31 Mar. 2008 http://crave.cnet.co.uk/digitalcameras/0,39029429,49293172,00.htm