The Future of Photography
The story of photography is an old and fascinating one. The journey from the first crude images captured by primitive box cameras to today's highly sophisticated computerized cameras has been a long one. But the pace of change is now accelerating very rapidly.
There is currently an ongoing debate about the future of film cameras. With the ease of use and rapidly dropping prices of digital cameras, pundits fear there is a real danger that it is only a matter of time until no one uses film and manufacturers stop making it altogether. Let's examine this issue in light of some very real concerns surrounding the use of film versus digital technology. What distinguishes film from digital cameras according to the critics of the new technology?
Film is verifiable. If the image is altered, it is detectable.
The image quality of film SLRs exceeds that of digital.
No computer technology is needed to shoot and share film images.
Digital experts respond that digital technology has made impressive strides to close the distance between film and digital images. There is now a way to make sure the photo you see has not been altered.
Image verification software embeds a digital fingerprint, applied when a picture is taken, into the image file. If even one pixel is altered, the software will detect it and alert the user. For people who need to know that the image they are viewing or printing is unaltered, this is a huge breakthrough.
The image quality of commercial digital cameras has increased dramatically in recent years. Experts now agree that 11 or 12 megapixel SLR digital cameras can actually have image quality higher than their film counterparts; in fact, some are equal to medium format cameras.
Some points in favor of digital cameras are:
Capacity. A day spent shooting can easily produce thousands of images. If they were shot on film this would mean a lot of storage capacity for the many rolls, plus the film would have to be handled with care. With memory card storage, you can easily store thousands of images in a small pocket.
Ease of use. With the ability to take many pictures quickly and cheaply, you don't need to be a great photographer to get the shot. Instant feed-back allows you to reshoot immediately.
Price. Memory cards are erasable and can be used repeatedly. There are no film processing fees. Because bad shots don't need to be processed or printed, you save there as well.
Green issues. The chemicals used to develop film and make prints can be rather toxic to humans and can be difficult to dispose of safely.
Professional photographers, particularly photojournalists, almost all use digital technology. The ability to quickly process and electronically transmit images has dictated this change. Purists and portrait photographers will probably continue to use film for the foreseeable future, but increasing numbers of event photographers are making the switch to digital.
Better cameras, falling prices, and improved printing technology will lure more and more people away from film. Cell phones with 5 megapixel cameras built in will become commonplace and reasonably priced. Digital camera sales have already far outstripped film camera sales.
The biggest surprise in the world of image capture is in the area of the camera phone. It's expected that by late 2008 or early 2009, the number of camera phones purchased will exceed the number of both film and digital cameras bought in the entire history of photography. It will probably reach about 1.5 billion units by 2010! This huge base of camera phone users will have an enormous impact on the way people take photographs, as well as what they do with the images they capture. The introduction of the iPhone and similar technologies has boosted the ratio of camera phone to digital camera sales to a 6 to 1 ratio in 2008. The technology for these phones means it is not unusual to find 5, 6, or even 8 megapixel camera phones. Camera phone features still haven't caught up with the ones found on good quality SLRs and DSLRs, but the technology gap is rapidly closing.
