Buy A Digital Camera

When the first true digital camera first came out in 1988 (The Fuji DS-1P), photographers around the world were still a little skeptical as to what would become of the technology.  Many thought it was a fad that wouldn’t pick up and then there were those who began to ask if their film cameras could be converted to be able to take digital photographs.  But amidst the questions, the first commercially available camera was available in 1991 by Kodak.  It sported a 1.3 mega pixel sensor and was priced at $13,000 dollars!  The digital camera has come a long way in the last decade and a half and so now we look at why the frenzy still affects us today.

Design

So what is the hubbub about the rise of the digital camera?  Well, let’s look at the many things that did change when digital cameras came in to replace their analog brothers.  With the absence of the usage of film, digital cameras made it possible for manufacturers to save on material because they could now use less and build smaller and eventually thinner cameras.  Digital cameras showed the world that there was no need for the hollowed out spaces found in traditional cameras, meant for the loading of film.  This also allowed manufacturers to come up with all sorts of funky designs to help excite and attract the curiosity of the consumer.  More functional and fashionable designs started to appear over the next decade.

Function

With the rise of the digital camera came the slow death of film.  Digital cameras capture images and store them on either internal or external memory.  These memory cards, these days, can be no larger than a thumbnail.  The best thing about this was that the images could be developed, erased off the memory cards, and therefore the extra space could be used again for newer images; so you can imagine what this meant for the camera industry and the manufacturers of film used in analog cameras.  Since digital cameras rely on a power source (conventional batteries or special ones made by different companies for their products), there was no longer the need to reload a camera in between shots.  One now only needs to keep pressing that button, capturing as many images as a memory card can hold.

Affordability

If there’s anything that a digital camera has changed, it’s the way that people spend their money.  In the past, photographers would have to set aside a few bucks to buy film for their re-loadable cameras.  Digital cameras are kind of a one-time purchase.  Buy a digital camera and a memory card with sufficient space and you can snap away at anything as long your battery lasts.  So where does all that extra money that should have been for film go?  Ideally, that extra money can go into savings; then again, you can spend it all on other gadgets that are to your liking.  In any case, the rise of the digital camera has given the consumer more spending power and it’s one less expense for the photographer who used to buy film.