ColdFusion - History Of The Digital Camera [Remember Ep. 2]

Starting point is 00:00:00 You are watching Coldfusion. Welcome to a special episode of Coldfustin TV. If you think about it, a lot of the inventions over the past hundred years have been eclipsed by one device, the smartphone. This is the Remember series, a time where we take a look back at some of those inventions and how we got to where we are today. Please enjoy episode two, the point and shoot digital camera. Classic point and shoot digital cameras were an integral part of society for the better part of two decades. and most of us remember having a digital camera at some stage. Priceless captured everlasting moments from the personal lives

Starting point is 00:00:38 of many people around the world are all owed to one device. Before the advent of the digital camera, when you took a photo, you had no way of really knowing if that shot was good or a total mess. Once you'd taken the shots that you needed, you had to send your images off to a physical Photoshop. And then you had to wait to get the film developed. The digital camera was a silent revolution in of itself. Of course there was the Polaroid to see images instantly, but it was really digital photos that were a new type of creation immortalised in ones and zeros.

Starting point is 00:01:12 Because I've got technology behind me and 50 snaps on this tiny little disk. Swop that in. The Japanese have been threatening for over two years to launch an electronic stills camera which would enable you to take pictures like this straight onto the disc without the need for any processing. Well, they're still working on the camera but the disc as you see has certainly arrived. What's more, these pictures will last forever. They won't fade and they'll never get scratched. But where do the technology for the digital camera come from and how is it starting to disappear so fast? Today's smartphones can do

Starting point is 00:01:51 some things that even many stand-blind digital cameras can't. We'll take a look at the state of the art at the end of this video but first the beginning. Most people think that the digital camera was an invention of the 1980s, but its origins actually began in the previous decade. The story begins in 1974 with a young engineer working at Kodak. His name was Steve's Saturn. One day Steve's boss gave him a new kind of chip and a camera and asked him to do something with the both of them. It was really just to keep Steve busy at the time. The chip that was handed to Steve was a CCD or charged couple device, and it really is the heart of the digital camera. At the time the CDD was a new experimental invention,

Starting point is 00:02:37 but was also unique as it could store large amounts of information by converting light into electrical charges that could eventually be stored as data. The idea was revolutionary at the time, but the question was, could you store images with this data? In essence, replacing the century-old film with a CCD. Steve set off to find out. Steve and a lab technician Jim Schlickler used old circuit boards, chips from a volt meter and an old lens to attempt to create this first digital camera. There was a lot of work ahead of them. They first had to get the device to work at all, then they had to try and figure out how to digitize the signal, and then eventually they had to find a way to read the digital signal and convert it into an image. It would be the recent

Starting point is 00:03:20 1971 invention of the microprocessor that would help with that last part. It took a few months and weighed 3.5 kilograms, but by December of 75 they had a prototype. But would it work? It was only one way to find out. These two weary guys needed something to take a photo up and the first photo subject happened to be a female lad technician that also went to Kota. Once the photo was taken it actually took 23 whole seconds to record the image. And when the image came up on the screen it wasn't the greatest quality and it was actually pretty distorted but the boys were ecstatic and they were happy that it had worked at all. The technician who

Starting point is 00:03:55 whose photo was taken wasn't impressed and simply stated that it needed more work. Steve soon discovered that he'd accidentally crossed two wires and when he uncrossed them, the image became clear. And with that final moment, the digital camera was officially born. Kodak didn't show much interest in the technology, however. If we really think about it from their point of view, why would they? Kodak had been making film for 136 years at the time, so film and film development was a huge part of their business model. The digital camera story continues in 1976. It would be

Starting point is 00:04:29 the military that would independently find the first real-life application for the new technology. It came in the form of a spy satellite. At the time, retrieving film canisters and the issue of limited film capacity were two very real problems. Now with the CCD, images could be transmitted to the ground with a crystal clear resolution of 0.64 megapixels or 800 by 800 pixels. As the years went by the military began to use digital cameras more and more, and then soon scientific field picked up on the technology, and then later still, medical applications. By the late 1980s, the media and newspapers had got on board.

Starting point is 00:05:06 In fact, the small size of digital photos made it possible to transmit photos via phone line out from communist China during the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989. However, digital cameras were still very expensive for what you actually got. For example, in 1991, Kodak brought to the market the Kodak DCS 100. It had a 1.3 megapixel sensor and a bulky external digital storage system. It was priced at a very cheap $13,000, and that's about $22,700 in today's money. Very cheap. But of course, by the mid to late 1990s, the price began to drop, and subsequently, the use had widely spread to the common user.

Starting point is 00:05:48 What can a picture be? Well, it can be whatever you want it to be. It can be on paper or not. A picture can be whatever you want it to be. Because now, Kodak gives you the power to take pictures further. The turning point was in the 2000s. At this point, film cameras had been largely replaced by their younger digital counterparts. But how did we get from the 2000s to now?

Starting point is 00:06:21 As you all know, the most common form of point-and-shoot digital. camera currently resides in that computer in your pocket. The smartphone. Before continuing, it's worth noting that 90% of mobile phones use a CMOS sensor. It's a technology that came of age in the late 80s and early 90s. It's similar to CCD, but cheaper to produce and does have a few issues such as rolling shutter during video capture. Let's continue.

Starting point is 00:06:47 The first camera phone was actually by Sharp. It was called the J-phone and it was released back in 2000. You could take a whopping 20 photos at a resolution of 0.11 megapixels. You could view the photos on its 1.5 inch LCD screen, but getting the photos off the phone was much more effort than it is today. Now, I just want to show you a little something before you continue. I found a 2001 BBC report of the very curious and equally ridiculous idea of putting a camera on a cell phone.

Starting point is 00:07:17 This report was about the J-phone itself. Just listen to some of the comments that were written 13 years ago. Joanna from Finland says, A picture-sheeting cell phone certainly is a curious invention. It could be handy for delicate investigation or infiltration. Who would know to look for a camera on a phone? Liz from the UK writes, infinite uses for the teenager, not entirely sure what the rest of us will do with London. But Julian from the UK is right on the money.

Starting point is 00:07:43 He says it's an obvious move. Eventually all portable gadgets, phone, camera, palm, computer, must come together in one communications device. and how right he was. It's always interesting to see how society acts to such early versions of what would later become common to pretty much everyone. As we all know, as the 2000s flowed on, the cameras got sharper, the phones got smarter, and more full-featured. For much of this decade, each passing year saw a steady improvement in image technology

Starting point is 00:08:13 and innovation. By 2010, you wouldn't be too disappointed if you had to rely on a phone rather than a point-and-shoot camera. 2011 saw a few ill-fated ideas come into play. Stereographic 3D was one of them, and both LG and HD made that mistake. Today in 2014, it's a completely different world. We have phones with 41 megapixel sensors, post-focusing, cinemographs, panoramas, HDR, burst modes, smile detection, face detection, and a whole lot more.

Starting point is 00:08:45 So, today, we now have a camera with us all the time. instantly capture the amazing, the shocking, or just the little personal things that make us who we are. All of this at any time, anywhere, instantly. It hasn't always been like this, so it's an interesting time to be alive. Anyway, that's the program for today. If you'd like to see the history of the video camera and the part it's played in our lives, please check out the first link below. Anyway, until next time, don't forget to give the thumbs up, comment and subscribe. And I'll see you again soon for the next video. Cheers guys. It's me thinking.

ColdFusion - History Of The Digital Camera [Remember Ep. 2]

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