History of the Digital Camera

Electronic Camera Steven Sasson (engineer at Eastman Kodak) invented and built the first electronic camera in 1975. The camera: weighed 8 pounds (3.6 kg) recorded black and white images to a compact cassette tape had a resolution of 0.01 megapixels (10,000 pixels) took 23 seconds to capture its first image in December 1975. The prototype camera was a technical exercise, not intended for production.

Steve Sasson and his Electronic Camera

Handhelds In 1981, came handheld electronic cameras that would record images like a video camera that recorded single frames onto video floppy disks (2”x 2”)

Analog Cameras Cost (upwards of $20,000) Poor image quality compared to film lacked quality affordable printers Capturing and printing an image originally required access to equipment such as a frame grabber, which was beyond the reach of the average consumer. The "video floppy" disks later had several reader devices available for viewing on a screen, but were never standardized as a computer drive.

Arrival of True Digital Cameras In 1991, Kodak brought to market the Kodak DCS-100 Beginning of a long line of professional Kodak DCS SLR cameras that were based on film bodies like Nikons. It used a 1.3 megapixel sensor Cost $13,000. Kodak DCS 100, based on a Nikon F3 body with Digital Storage Unit, released in May, 1991.

1999 saw the introduction of the Nikon D1 2.74 megapixel camera First digital SLR developed entirely by a major manufacturer Cost under $6,000 at introduction Affordable for pro photographers and high-end consumers. This camera also used Nikon F-mount lenses, meaning film photographers could use many of the same lenses they already owned.

Camera Phones 1995 = Apple experimented with the Apple Videophone/PDA On June 11, 1997, Philippe Kahn shared instantly the first pictures from the maternity ward where his daughter Sophie was born.  Kahn's cell phone transmission is the first known publicly shared picture via a cell phone. By 2003, more camera phones were sold worldwide than stand-alone digital cameras In 2008, Nokia sold more camera phones than Kodak sold film based simple cameras, thus becoming the biggest manufacturer of any kind of camera. The first camera phone was sold in 2000 in Japan, a J-Phone model

Apple Videophone/PDA (1995) Camera Phones Apple Videophone/PDA (1995) J-Phone  model (2000)

The sales of traditional digital cameras have declined due to the increasing use of smartphones for casual photography, which also enable easier manipulation and sharing of photos through the use of apps and web-based services.