Photography

Advancement in technology, including the beginning development of digital cameras and digital photography.

1957-1975

Eugene F. Lally of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory began working on a way to use a mosaic photo sensor to capture digital images.

1961

This CCD image sensor is the heart the digital camera development because it is the solid-state device that converts light into electric signals. This major breakthrough in 1969 provided the key piece of technology to begin the digital photography revolution. CCD image sensors are still widely used today. While today's CCD image sensors often have 12-14 megapixels the first one in 1969 was only 100 x 100 pixels.

1969

Was particularly important in the history of digital photography because George Smith and Willard Boyle of Bell Laboratories developed the CCD (charge-coupled-device) and demonstrated it on October 17,

1969

George Smith and Willard Boyle of Bell Laboratories built the first solid-state video camera.

1970

A Texas Instrument employee, Willis Adcock patented a film-less camera however the technology was still not available to make it a viable concept.

1972

Fairchild Imaging produced the first commercial CCD imager. This 10,000 pixel sensor (100 x 100 pixels) would become the foundation for the rapidly developing world of digital imaging.

1973

Bell Laboratories demonstrated the first CCD video camera with enough resolution to use for broadcast television. The CCD technology first developed by Bell Labs is found in all kinds of digital imaging devices today, including High-Definition television and video cameras. Other common technology that use CCD imagers are: web cameras, medical scopes, fax machines, copy machines, image scanners, digital cameras and bar code readers.

1975

Eastman Kodak engineer Steven Sasson patented a prototype digital camera using the recently invented Fairchild CCD image sensor and a lens from a Kodak movie camera. This camera was about the size of a large toaster and weighed almost nine pounds. The black and white digital image was stored on a cassette tape and in order to view the images the Kodak engineers had to develop a special screen. It was able to capture a .01 megapixel image (10,000 pixels) and took 23 seconds to record an image to the tape.

1975

Konica introduces the point-and-shoot Konica C35 AF the first mass-produced camera with autofocus.

1977

CCD technology continued to be developed and in 1978 Bell Laboratories successfully created an image sensor with 500 x 500 pixel array.

1978

Leica demonstrates the first SLR with fully operational autofocus at the Photokina photography show.

1978

Sony Electronics introduced the Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera), a video camera which recorded images on a floppy disk. This early electronic camera had a resolution of 720,000 pixels (.72 megapixels) and was able to store up to 50 images on a single 2.0" video floppy disk. Described as having beginning "a new era in photography" the Sony Mavica was a single lens reflex camera with three interchangeable lenses capable of capturing images to the floppy disk and displaying them back on a TV. While an important milestone in the history of digital photography this was essentially a video camera that took still images and not a true digital camera. Nevertheless the development of this camera is a very important event along the digital photography timeline.

1981

The Pentax ME-F becomes the first autofocus 35mm SLR. It uses in body focus sensor coupled with a motorized lens.

1981

The first true working digital camera was built by the University of Calgary Canada ASI Science Team. Their All-Sky camera was designed to photograph auroras and used one of the 100 x 100 pixel Fairchild CCD image sensors.

1981

Minolta releases the Minolta Maxxum 7000 the first 35mm This camera as well as all Minolota AF SLR's to follow incorporated both the autofocus sensor and the drive motor in the camera body.

1985

Canon began manufacturing and distributing digital cameras with the release of the RC-701 a SVC (still video camera) that had four interchangeable lenses and sold for about $3,000.

1986

Digital Darkroom was released becoming the first image editing software for the Macintosh computer. 1988 saw another key event in the history of digital photography when the first JPEG and MPEG standards were set. These standards set in place a universal format which allowed images (JPEG) and video (MPEG) to be stored in a compressed format.

1988

Fuji developed the DS-1P which is considered to be the first fully digital consumer camera to be sold. This camera recorded images digitally on a 16MB internal memory card and had 16mm F/5.6 lens with shutter speeds from 1/60/ to 1/200 of a second.Nikon_D90Nikon_D90

1988

Kodak develops the Photo CD system and proposes the first " worldwide standard for defining color in the digital environment of computers and computer peripherals."

1990

Another milestone in the digital photography timeline was when Kodak released the first professional digital camera system marketed towards journalists. It used a Nikon F-3 camera film body adapted with a 1.3 megapixel Kodak CCD image sensor. It sold for $13,000.

1991

Fuji releases the DS-100 digital memory card camera. This camera had a 390,000 pixel imager and a 8-24mm F/2 power zoom lens. It recorded images to a digital image card and sold for around $5,000. Fuji also sold a card drive that hooked up to a Macintosh computer via the SCSI port resulting in faster image downloads than the typical serial interface more commonly used. This camera included a version of Adobe PhotoShop that allowed the importing of images to a Macintosh computer.

1991

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications release Mosaic the first internet photograph browser another important event along the digital photography timeline.

1992

Apple releases the QuickTake 100 a color digital camera made by Kodak. With as selling price of $795 this camera was able to capture a 640x480 pixel color image and came with a fixed focus 50mm lens. It used three AAA batteries for power and weighed only one pound. It stored up to 32 images at 320 x 240 pixels or 8 pictures at 640 x 480 resolution and connected to a computer via a serial port

1994

Olympus introduces the Deltis VC-1100, the world's first digital camera capable of uploading photos using a modem to another camera or computer. It had a built in zoom lens and an image resolution of 768 x 576 pixels. Selling at about $4,000 this camera was also one of the first cameras to store images on an external PCMCIA card.

1994

Canon and Kodak jointly released the EOS DCS series of digital cameras intended for professional use. Canon also released the the EF 75-300mm F4-5.6 IS lens. This was the first still camera telephoto lens that had built in image stabilization technology.

1995

Ricoh releases the RDC-1 the first digital camera that could also take movies with sound, although the movies were limited to only 10 seconds long. Also in 1995 Casio released the QV-11 which was one of the first digital cameras with an LCD display.

1995

Sony introduces their first "Cyber-shot" digital camera the DSC-F1. This camera used a .3 megapixel (310,000 pixel) CCD image sensor capable of a resolution of 640x480 pixels. It had 4MB of internal flash memory and could store up to 108 JPEG images. (30 images in fine mode.)

1996

Was a breakout year with Hitachi coming out with the MP-EG1 the first digital camera that captured movies in the MPEG format. At the same time Sony released the Cyber-shot DSC-MD1 the first digital camera that recorded JPEG images onto a MiniDisc (a small CD). This camera had a 640x480 pixel CCD image sensor and a 37 to 111mm F/2 lens with macro functions. The same year Sony also released its MVC-FD5 the first of its Mavica cameras that allowed users to record JPEG images directly to a standard 3.5 inch floppy disk making it easy for the consumer to transfer the images directly to their computers.

1997

Sony's MVC-FD91 was one of the first cameras to use Sony's Info Lithium batteries. This allowed continuous feedback as to how much battery life was left as well as eliminating the "memory" problem typical of NICAD rechargeable batteries. Like most other Mavica's this camera stored images on a standard 3.5" floppy disk. It was one of the first cameras to have a 14X zoom lens with built in image stabilization and a key event in the digital photography timeline. With a 37mm to 518mm effective focal length the camera set a new standard for what today would be referred to as "super zoom" cameras. It had a 1024 x 768 pixel CCD sensor and sold for around $700.

1998

Another important point on the digital photography timeline was when Photohighway.com started the first photography site on the internet where photos can be uploaded directly from a digital camera.

1999

Nikon also releases two 2 megapixel cameras capable of producing smaller photo quality prints. The Coolpix 900 came with a zoom lens while the Coolpix 700 had a fixed focal length lens.

1999

Canon releases the EOS D30 with a 3.25 megapixel CMOS image sensor and a RGB color filter. This camera was characterized by a small and light body and had a fully automatic mode that made it appealing to consumers and helped expand the non-professional use of digital SLR's.

2000

Canon releases the PowerShot S40 with a 4.0 megapixel CCD Sensor. In just three short years CCD image sensor resolution had increased dramatically from 810,000 pixels (.81 megapixels) in 1998 to 4 megapixels in 2001. Not only was image sensor resolution increasing rapidly but so were advancements in auto focus, auto exposure and auto white balance making 2001 an important year on the digital photography timeline.

2001

Sony releases the DSC-F707 their first Cyber-shot camera with a 5 megapixel sensor. This camera also featured Sony's "NightShot" technology that enabled users to take pictures at night without flash.

2001

The Foveon image sensor is introduced. This unique CMOS image sensor is the first one to capture color information for red, green and blue light at every pixel location during a single exposure. Click here for more information on Foveon Image Sensors and the technology behind them. Sigma is currently the only camera manufacturer to use the Foveon Image Sensor. Click here for more information on Sigma's line of digital cameras.

2002

Canon launches the Digital Rebel one of the first affordable DSLR's aimed at the non-professional market. These cameras allowed Canon owners with film SLR's to transition to the digital world using their existing Canon lenses.

2003

Another key event in the digital photography timeline was when Nikon discontinued most of its film cameras and its large format lenses to focus on digital models. As of 2010 the Nikon F6, a professional model film based SLR is the only non-digital camera still being made by Nikon.

2006

Nikon releases the Nikon D3 a "full frame" DSLR followed shortly by the Nikon D700 a few months later.

2007

Sony introduces the Sony SLT-A55 iconand SLT-A33 iconDSLR's that use a fixed translucent mirror instead of the typical mirror assembly found in DSLR's. This type of mirror assembly is known as a pellicle mirror and is not new technology but Sony's implementation of along with a phase detection autofocus system has won rave reviews including being named one of the "50 Best Inventions of 2010" by Time magazine. With a 16.2 megapixel image sensor and the ability to capture images at 10 frames per second the Sony SLT-A55 icon sets new levels of performance for DSLR's in it's price range. Sony's innovative new design marks another milestone in the digital photography timeline. You can find a quick review of the Sony SLT-A55 here.

2010