It’s hard to believe that the whole “Y2K Scare” was just 10 years & a couple of months ago. We are into our second decade of not only the new Millennium but consumer and Professional digital photography. In this article we are going to take a look back at the first digital decade in digital photography. We will look at the advancements in technology as well as where digital photography came from and where it might be headed.

Multi Spectral Scanners (MSS) Image credit: Smithsonian.org

Let’s start by looking at the first digital chips used to record and transmit digital imagery. If you didn’t already know they came from "spy" satellites back in 1982. During a trip to the Air and Space museum in Washington D.C. we found a display that touted a massive 2 megapixel recording chip placed in a satellite that was used to "watch" the movements of unfriendly nations' armed forces. These chips were only used really as scanners, called multi spectral scanners (MSS) they had their origins in a much earlier time than the 1980's and were used to watch and catalog the differences in say asset movements of our cold war rivals the Russians. An image would be scanned of a specific area, the orbiter would then scan again a few hours later and the images would be compared to reveal any changes.

Imagine if you will, less than 20 years later that same technology would spawn a revolution in the photographic world that is still being felt today. We went from a piece of equipment that was meant to keep our country safe from the then cold war states; to being able to take photos of our friends with our phones and instantly post them to our personal Facebook pages within seconds. 

The journey of the digital camera as we know it began with a camera that was less than a single megapixel in size and the image quality was less than stellar. This is where we will begin our decade long journey.

Sony Mavica

One of the very first consumer digital cameras came from Sony. The "Mavica" was huge, heavy and had horrible images compared to those produced today. The recorded images were stored on a new 3.5 in floppy disk. The total image area was less than a megapixel and it cost over $1000. 

Kodak's Nikon F-3 with a hard drive.

It was Kodak who broke the megapixel rating with the first 1.4 megapixel chip in 1986. They placed this in their DCS series cameras. The cameras were basically a Nikon F-3 that had been modified with a hard drive to store the images with. Imagine carrying around one of these monsters. They were very heavy but allowed press photographers to input their images directly into whatever publication they were working for without shaking a tank to develop the film. 

Fast forward to 2000 and the introduction of some of the first DSLR 35 mm style cameras. At this point, camera manufacturers were still producing more film cameras than digital and the size of the chips placed into the new digital cameras was smaller than a full frame 35 mm by almost 50%.

This new chip, modeled after the APS film camera designed by Kodak in the 1990’s and lent to the development of a "standardized chip size" that has since been the dominant chip size throughout the first digital decade of our new digital age in photography. The APS-C chip allowed manufacturers to work with a chip that could be easily powered by the camera batteries of the time and could allow the images to be stored on the then smaller CF chips rather than an external hard drive or 3.5 floppy disk.

APS-C chip

The popularity of the chip with consumers came from the 4x6 full-frame aspect ratio. The ASP-c chip with its quick response time and high quality and frame rate became the standard in the industry as they worked on developing a "full-frame " chip that could match its attributes. 

Progressive photographers began “experimenting” with the new medium but held tightly to their film past. Some new industry leaders began to immerge and voila a whole new industry within an industry had been born. Oddly enough film sales reached their zenith in 2000 and it has been a downhill roll for them ever since. In the 10 plus years since Kodak, has stopped making consumer film point and shoot cameras, Agfa virtually went out of business and buying Black and White film has become a very expensive art form for the true enthusiast. 

By 2002 DSLR cameras began to infiltrate the pro market. While medium format was still king, these new digital gadgets were allowing photographers the ability to add a specialty item to their lines and begin to popularize the medium. The new cameras from Fuji and Canon at this time were where pros were going to get their 3 megapixel fix at a cost of around $3000.

The revolution was in full swing from this point forward there was no turning back. Digital cameras were here to stay. They were quickly falling into the same arena as computers. New advancements were continuously being made and we were seeing leaps forward in their abilities and technology about once every 18 months. The list of improvements is staggering.

Smile!

I am sure that we are missing a few but here goes. ….. Higher resolution (Pixel counts ), color standardization, higher ISO settings, faster frame rates per second, higher shutter sync speeds, auto focus improvements including, digital focus assistance, image stabilization, vibration reduction, better color with custom white balance and now smart technology like facial smile recognition! That’s right, if you have a subject that doesn’t smile, the camera won’t take a picture til they do. Whoa. 

As we begin a new decade of digital photography, one can only imagine the possibilities for the cameras of tomorrow. So where do we see it headed?

Probably one of the first real steps we will see is further convergence of still and video cameras. The lines will become more and more blurred as these media move closer together. Already you can buy a high end DSLR that shoots 1080p images using the various lenses available on a DSLR.

Link: Canon 5D Promo Video

(Worth your time when you consider it was shot using a DSLR camera be sure to check out the list of lenses used for this video at the end. Unreal !)

Whole movies and television shows have already been recorded using these lightweight easy to use camera’s and the results are amazing not to mention that the price of these high end video recorders is a fraction of standard video cameras.

Additionally we see pro's migrating back to medium format cameras as these come down in price and begin to shoot in higher frame rates. With bigger recording chips and the incredible quality pros demand, the return to the medium format arena will bring pros full circle.

For the consumer market we will find smaller quicker cameras that will have things like wireless access to allow them to instantly upload the images to the internet and post them to their favorite social website, have the ability to network with their TV for instant display or storage through a Bluetooth connection directly to a wireless solid state hard drive.

While all of this is speculative, don't be surprised when it happens. With the move to a wireless atmosphere for computers, built in controls within cameras we believe, is only a matter of time. They will have the ability to send images straight to print with compatible printers or even upload them to your favorite lab the second they are taken. What of our prints? Will the industry move to simply displaying our images on a video screen? Or will print survive this digital revolution? Well we believe that print will be around for some people love their digital images no doubt but pros, advertisers, even mom and dad need to have that print as a hard copy of what they have done. We understand that electronic storage of print media is becoming a regular occurence, but what happens when the lights go out or the CD or hard drive fails. - Aloha