Mangalore: Let us Delve Into Magical World of Digital Photography
Feature & Pictures by Ahmed Anwar
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Aug 17: Digital photography is an area that has been witnessing tremendous growth these days. We find more and more people buying digital SLR’s and digital cameras these days, even though they are not professional photographers. The newfound enthusiasm about acquiring the latest digital cameras seems to have been buoyed by the fact that technology has been growing rapidly and that various websites in the internet have been promoting the cult of sharing of photographs. The improving financial status of the people also perhaps, has contributed to this phenomenon. But the pertinent question is, do you know the history of digital photography? You may be an enthusiast right now, but knowing a thing or two about its past will help you understand a lot of things about the world of digital photography.

Let us start with George Smith and Willard Boyle. Thanks to these two, the CCD or charge-coupled device, was invented in the year 1969. It was on the 17th of October that year, that the image sensor was discovered. If you are not already aware, the image sensor is like the heart of all the digital cameras. Without it, there will be no digital photography. So, after having been able to create the image sensor, they started making some kind of semiconductors, like the ones you find in your computers. Apart from the image sensor, they also tried to develop the very first solid-state camera that could be used during the video conferencing on phones. It took only an hour before they were able to sketch out everything they planned to do. They succeeded and could build the first solid-state video camera in the year 1970. And in 1975, they came up with the first CCD camera that was sharp enough for being televised. Now, the CCD technology is being widely used in other applications such as HD television, video conferencing, fax and copying machine, bar codes, endoscopes, security monitoring, digital still cameras, and even image scanners.

In the year 1981, the prototype of the first digital camera was introduced. It was none other than Sony Corporation which introduced their Mavica electronic still camera. Mavica was short for magnetic video camera. The photos were recorded as magnetic impulses on a floppy disk. Again, they made use of the CCD technology by using two CCD chips. The first one was meant to store the luminance information, while the second one recorded the chrominance information. You might not believe it, but that camera could accommodate a 7, 20,000-pixel image stored on the disk in field or frame mode. Field mode allows for 50 images on a disk, while the latter allowed only 25 images, meaning it featured more detailed images. During that period, it was the leader in still cameras. However, to view the photos, one needed to connect it into a video reader that is connected to a printer of TV monitor. Thus, it was not considered a real digital camera, as it was in reality, a video camera taking video freeze-frames.

1986 came and it was the scientists from Kodak Company, who invented the mega pixel sensor. In 1987, they released seven products that were used for recording, storing, editing, transmitting, as well as for printing the electronic still video images. But, the first professional digital camera system, more popularly called the DCS, which was intended for the professional photographers, was released by Kodak in 1991.

The 170th World Photographic Day is being celebrated on the 19th of this month. On this occasion, the district Photographers Association would be organizing a programme on Sunday August 16, at Jugul Towers Mallikatta in the city.