Florida Memory is administered by the Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services, Bureau of Archives and Records Management. The digitized records on Florida Memory come from the collections of the State Archives of Florida and the special collections of the State Library of Florida.
State Archives of Florida
- ArchivesFlorida.com
- State Archives Online Catalog
- ArchivesFlorida.com
- ArchivesFlorida.com
State Library of Florida
Related Sites
Listen: The Assorted Selections ProgramDigital Photography
- Modern digital cameras have a lens, aperture and shutter but do not use film.
- A digital image is composed of a series of square picture elements, called pixels, each with its own numerical value.
- Digital photographs are convenient and versatile because they do not require chemicals or paper.
History
Digital photography as we know it was invented in an Eastman Kodak laboratory in the early 1970s, by Steve Sasson. After two years of experimenting with the recently invented charged-coupled device (CCD), random access memory (RAM), and digital magnetic tape, Sasson constructed the first digital camera using the lens from a Super-8 movie camera, an analog/digital converter, and six circuit boards among a few other control and battery components.
Ironically, the corporation that had dominated the photographic arts for the better part of a century did not do much with this new method, and competitors quickly filled the space. The first digital camera available for sale was the Dycam Model 1, also marketed as the Logitech Fotoman, in 1990. Made by the Swiss company Logitech, the Fotoman digital camera had one megabyte of internal RAM, a built-in flash, and could store 32 black-and-white images. This was cutting edge technology in 1990, and the Fotoman carried a price to match, retailing for nearly
$1,000 at its release.
Today, digital photography is everywhere; most people carry a digital camera with them in the form of a camera phone. Unlike every photographic process that came before, digital photography does not rely on any chemical reaction. The recording of light is the only part of the process that remains unchanged. Exposures are made on a digital image sensor, which converts light into electrical impulses that are in turn recorded as numerical values. A computer can translate this data for display on any screen. Existing only as data, digital images can be copied, edited or transmitted more easily than any
physical photograph; it only takes a few clicks.
Did You Know?
For archivists, digital images offer a rare advantage because multiple copies can be made of the same image. The more copies that exist for digital files, the less likely they are to be lost. However, file formats and storage media are often replaced by newer technologies. Any collector of digital images needs to remain diligent in keeping their files ahead of this cycle of obsolescence.
Nighttime view of a Space Shuttle launch from the Kennedy Space Center, 2000. (State Archives of Florida)
