How Digital Photography Works

CHAPTER 1 THE WORKINGS OF A DIGITAL CAMERA^7

You push the button, we do the rest.

George Eastman, 1888, pitching

the first Kodak camera

ANDthere was, indeed, a time when it was just that simple. I recall my father’s Kodak. I don’t know what hap-

pened to it after he died, and so it took some research on eBay to find out that it was most likely a Pocket Kodak 1

or 1A, which Eastman Kodak began selling about the turn of the century—the lastcentury, like 1900.

It was not a fancy camera. The upscale Kodaks had red leather billows, polished wood

rails for the lens assembly to travel as you focused, brass fittings, and lenses from Zeiss.

Daddy’s Kodak was serviceable, and a lovely creation in its own right. To take a picture,

you looked down into a viewfinder that was a mirror set at a 45-degree angle. It had no

motors. You cocked a spring manually and pressed a plunger at the end of a cable teth-

ered to the lens to make the shutter snap open and shut. Focusing was a combination of

guesswork and luck, although now that I think about it, I don’t recall seeing an out-

of-focus picture come out of the camera.

When not in use, the bellows—made of pedestrian black

leather—and the lens collapsed into the case, which also held the

roll of film. Despite its name, the Pocket Kodak would have been a

tight fit in most pockets. But it wasn’t a toy. It was meant to be car-

ried and used anywhere.

The thing is, it took very decent photos. And it did so with few

means to adjust exposure or focus—and with no opportunity at

all to adjust settings we assume should be adjusted with today’s

cameras. There were no white balance controls, no bracketed

shooting or exposure compensation, no depth of field to worry

about, no flash or backlighting. You pretty much clicked the shutter

and a week later picked up your photos from the drugstore.

Today’s cameras, with all their automation and intelligence,

are very easy to use. But you couldn’t blame a novice if the

sight of so many knobs and buttons makes him suddenly grow weak. It’s not so bad if you take all the controls

leisurely and a few at a time. That’s what we’ll do here to familiarize you with the lay of the land before you embark

into the deeper territory of how digital photography works.

Not your father’s Kodak maybe...but it was mine.