I still can remember when I thought it just didn't get any better than having my 33mm film, which turned into brilliant color slide that I could project onto a screen and share with my friends and family. My introduction to digital picture taking took place at a trade show in Las Vegas and I was completely blown away by the prospect of not having any film in the digital zoom camera.
Just think that I would no longer have to run down to the local drug store or camera shop to but film. Or return to drop off the exposed rolls of film, and return a few days later to pick up my developed film that was either in prints or slides. Just think that all of those trips eliminated. In the beginning I don't think I could discern any real difference in quality between my 33mm prints and the output from my 3-5 megapixel camera.
Very quickly the advantages of my digital picture taking device began to grow. Pretty soon my point & click camera began to take video. And the possibilities expanded. And before I knew it practically every cell phone had a best digital camera included and every kid on the block was shooting pictures and videos. Not only were they shooting pictures and videos but they were e-mailing them to their friends and family.
What a fantastic revolution of posting them on YouTube for the whole world to see. Everyone can become a photographer. Depending on the persons preferences they could stick with the ever increasing quality of point & click or they could move up to the higher level of digital single lens reflex. The DLSR brought the world of professional photography into the lives of each and every one of us. The manufacturers kept giving us more goodies packed into smaller packages while the technology and miniaturization improved.
I believe that the world kind of divided into two camps. Those who really got into the technology and took the road of high tech and those who wanted the simplicity of plain old point & shoot. At the same time the world of "moving pictures" was going through the same evolution.
Nowadays, the digital camcorder was growing and offering more and more features, becoming a part of all of the fun taking place in the camera business. But then something really revolutionary came onto the scene. We now had a device that was about the same size and weight as most point & shoot cameras but that shot video. And then the kicker. All you had to do was plug it into your computer through the USB port and you instantly had the ability to share your videos with the world.
At present, this generation will never understand the procedure of going to the camera shop or drug store to drop off and buy new film to load into your digital zoom camera. Andy Rooney may remember those days with fond memories but the rest of us can be grateful for the evolution of memory capture. I can't wait to see what is coming next.
