The History of the Digital Camera

The digital camera is a staple in most people’s households today, and you see them almost everywhere. Professionals buy the more expensive ones, but they can also be bought in the point and shoot variety at the local retail chain store. However, not that many people know how they came to be.

Digital photography actually got started in 1957 with the advent of the drum scanner. This device didn’t actually take pictures but copied pictures that had already been taken and saved them as a digital signal in binary code. The big move to digital cameras really didn’t gain much ground until 1973, though, when a digital image was actually produced. It was only 0.1 megapixels, but it was still an image. It was proof that the technology to make digital images was out there. The next camera that came out was by Sony, and it stored pictures on a two inch floppy disk.

From that humble beginning, digital cameras begin to grow in popularity and they started advancing rapidly. Still, though, people didn’t really use them a lot until very recently because the cost finally came down enough that people could actually afford to have them in their homes even if they weren’t professional photographers. That brought them into view of more people and made them mainstream, which is where they are today – and likely where they will stay, as well.