Digital Camera History

In 1975, an employee of Kodak created the first digital camera from scrap and a single cassette tape. Prior to this invention, photographs were taken using film cameras. Before, photographs were stored on film rather than memory cards. Eventually, the digital format dominated the photography industry. The innovation of the digital camera changed the costs of photography and the way photographs were taken.

The Advanced Photo System (APS) was first introduced in 1996 by Kodak under the brand name of Advantix (Radice). The Advanced Photo System was a very popular film format among both manufacturers and consumers (Radice). The APS format initially had slow growth, due to the vast amount of 35 mm products in the market at the time (Radice).

In the 1997 Photo Marketing Association convention, there was a heavy emphasis on digital cameras and equipment (Radice). It was at this point in which digital had become a contender with APS. At the time, the digital format appealed more to high-end audiences, while the APS format catered more to broader audiences (Radice). However, what brought digital photography to the people was introduction of cameras to phones (Castella). This combination allowed quick and easy access to a digital camera. This convenience had allowed cameras in phones to be outlast the small, compact cameras that were once popular (Castella). With the growing popularity of digital cameras, film sales began to decline (Castella). At this point, the digital camera had surpassed the film

Because digital cameras are easier to access & quicker to set up, more split-second moments can be captured. Early camera models were fragile compared to modern models (Goddard). The more megapixels a digital camera has, the more detail it provides (McClelland). In the early days of the digital format, digital cameras had inferior quality in comparison to film cameras. Most entry-level digital cameras were 1-megapixel to 3-megapixels (Goddard). However, photographs taken digitally will not degrade, depending upon file format and if they are archived properly (McClelland). Digital photographs were stored on a flash drive, such as an SD card, when taken, then, transferred to a computer or another form of hard drive