embraced digital cameras enabling shots to be
taken at the Olympics in Los Angeles and sent to
Japan across phone lines for publication within 30
minutes. Through the mid-1980s all the major
camera manufacturers began to market digital
cameras aimed at professional users, although the
image quality of these early cameras was really
quite poor by contemporary film standards. In
1986, Canon produced its RC701 still video cam-
era, Kodak developed its milestone 1.5 mega-
pixel digital sensor, and Nikon produced a
digital camera prototype. In 1987 Kodak intro-
duced its Still Video System, which included a
printer, storage system, and camera. All of these
cameras were prohibitively expensive for anyone
bar professional users, but towards the end of
the decade, cameras that were aimed at the nas-
cent consumer market were developed, most
notably the Logitech Fotoman. Naturally, to
bring the price down the image quality that
had been steadily becoming finer was reduced
for this line of cameras (the Fotoman had a
resolution of 640480 pixels).
Also at this time digital studio cameras were
being developed that had improved image quality
but were tethered to a computer. At the begin-
ning of the 1990s this evolved into high resolution
cameras that took the form of the digital back.
The digital back utilizes a pre-existing camera,
replacing the film holder with a sensor. These
have the advantage of using existing camera
parts, most notably the camera body and optics.
This principle is also used in digital SLRs. In
1992 Kodak paired with Nikon Inc. to produce
the first digital SLR, the DCS200, which became
the benchmark for digital cameras as that time.
Rather than using a video feed that was captured
in still frames, it used Nikon’s optics and camera
integrated with Kodak’s sensors producing an
image that was four times as fine as the standard
still video camera. Kodak and Nikon’s collabora-
tion led the digital camera revolution for the next
few years, until Nikon produced its own camera
and Kodak teamed up with Canon in 1995. As
the decade progressed smaller and cheaper sen-
sors provided the consumer market with viable
prices that could capture enough detail to satisfy
amateur photographers. At the time of writing
the high end of the consumer market has reached
eight megapixels and the professional SLR cam-
eras have reached 12 to 14 megapixels, although
this figure will undoubtedly increase for some
time to come.
ANDREWAtkinsonFurther Reading
Allenbach, Jan P., ed.The Journal of Electronic Imaging.
The Society of Imaging and Technology (IS&T) and
International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE),
2004.
Blouke, Morley M., John Canosa, and Nitin Sampat, eds.
Sensors and Camera Systems for Scientific, Industrial,
and Digital Photography Applications V. International
Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), 2004.
Lister, Martin.The Photographic Image in Digital Culture.
London: Routledge, 1998.
Manovich, Lev.The Language of New Media. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001.
Mitchell, William J.The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in
the Post-Photographic Era. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
MIT Press, 1992.
Von Amelunxen, Hubertus.Photography After Photogra-
phy. Munich: G&B Arts, 1996.CAMERA: DISPOSABLE
The basic concept behind a disposable camera is a very
simple one. Consumers buy a camera the same way
they buy a roll of film, and send the camera to process.
Film companies are able to sell cameras instead of
films. These cameras with film should be very simple
and cheap, providing ‘‘good enough’’ quality picture,
meeting the needs of those not willing to spend the
money on a ‘‘real’’ camera, or to learn some basic
concepts of photography. However, the concept
proved to be so successful that disposable cameras
have seen their way into art photographers hands,
seeking a simple ‘‘non-technically driven’’ way of mak-
ing pictures, or into other serious photographers’ bags
as a cheap camera to use in harsh environment.CAMERA: DISPOSABLE