Photography, Electronic

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Photography, Electronic

Other methods for electronic photography

In 1981, the Sony Corporation unveiled a filmless, electronic camera, the Mavica. Mavica was an acronym for Ma gnetic Vi deo Ca mera; it used an electronic still-video system to record 50 analog images on a diskette. Although they were recorded on a diskette, they were not digital images. The images were played back on a monitor and were printed out by standard black-and-white or color computer printers on regular paper or on photographic paper.

The early, still-video Mavica was not widely used. (In 2006, the brand name remained in use for a completely different, fully digital Sony camera.) In 1986, Canon was the first company to introduce a professional electronic camera on a commercial scale. Two years later, in 1988, Sony released the ProMavica for use in professional and industrial applications. The ProMavica is compatible with a set of standards agreed on by 43 potential still video manufacturers also in 1988 called the Hi-band standard. This agreement established international guidelines for still video photography much like the VHS standards for video tape recordings. The Hi-band standard includes industry standards for resolution (400 horizontal lines per image) and image quality. By 1990, Nikon, Minolta, and a number of other makers had joined Sony and Canon in producing still video cameras for both professionals and amateurs.

The still video camera records the images it sees as analog electrical signals on the magnetic layer of a diskette. It scans the image one line at a time so a recognizable pattern is established for storing and reproducing the electronic signals. Resolution is carried by one signal, and two others carry color (much like hue and saturation on a television image). Liquid crystal display (LCD) screens may soon be added to still video cameras so the photographer can see the electronic image; but, by the late 1990s, electronic cameras used viewfinders much like film-based cameras. Diskettes are also a limitation and may be replaced by data storage on compact discs, which can already be used as a photographic storage method but not directly from the camera.

Advantages of the still video camera are that processing is not needed (and processing chemicals are eliminated), images can be viewed or printed instantly, diskettes are erasable and can be re-recorded, and captured images can be manipulated and transmitted via e-mail and other methods using computer software that is relatively inexpensive.

The digital still camera

Fuji’s digital still camera (which debuted in 1988) converts analogs signals—the means by which an electronic camera “sees” an image—to digital signals and stores them on a slide-in card that has fewer complications of motors and drives than a diskette-based system. Resolution is better than the analog system, and, because the digital camera is typically connected to other digital devices for transfer or manipulation of its data, these transfers occur more quickly. The card also carries 50 images, and manufacturers are working on linking this technology to the digital audio tape (DAT) recording system to store 1,000 images on one tape in an electronic photo album; audio messages can also be recorded on this tape and played concurrently.

Applications

Uses for electronic still photography extend as far as the imagination. some examples:

In the styling/beauty salon, an operator can take an electronic photo of the customer and superimpose hundreds of hair styles and colors on the image, which is available from the camera immediately.
Wholesale and retail buyers traveling long distances from main offices can photograph potential merchandise and have it reviewed and approved by management at home as quickly as the images can be transferred. Purchases can be negotiated on the same buying trip, saving travel time or communications time after the buyers return home.
Journalism, including photojournalism, benefits by transferring photographic data over telephone lines via electronic mail (e-mail). Pictures from distant locations around the world are available for the next edition.
Medical specialists can review photos of physical conditions or surgeries without the time and expense of moving either the patient or the specialist.
Police departments and other crime investigation agencies can immediately transmit artists’ renderings and photographs of suspects around the world. Still video is also critical to searches for missing children.
Thanks to CCD technology, amateur stargazers can use still video cameras attached to their telescopes to photograph the skies. Standard CCDs have to be modified to include a greater magnitude of resolution and a greater wavelength range, but, with these changes, sensitive images and even spectrogram, which are made with special optics that spread starlight into the spectrum, can be recorded through backyard telescopes with digital cameras attached.

Video cameras

Video cameras are common in hand-held versions for the home photographer, but many professional video cameras are used to take still photos for professional uses. They obtain high resolution especially through the super VHS format and can be linked to modems for immediate transfer of video or still shots. Specialized cameras with digital-video-image storage systems were used to take the first photographs of the HMS Titanic when she was discovered in her underwater grave in the Atlantic Ocean in 1986. The cameras were attached to an undersea sled called the Argo, and the versatility of the video recording method allowed many scientists means of analyzing the photographic findings. Sophisticated video cameras are also used extensively in medicine, especially in operating rooms to permit several doctors to offer immediate comments on procedures and conditions.

Other methods for electronic photography

The specialized field known as “image processing” is growing out of electronic photography. An electronic photograph may be taken using a still video camera, a video camera (using a single frame for the still image), or by digitizing a photographic image by using a scanner. After the photographic data has been stored, it can be manipulated by computer software in any number of ways. Parts of the photo can be erased, colors can be changed, composites can be made from several photographs, and contrast, sharpness, overall size, and size changes by cropping can be accomplished by tweaking the data. By the late 1980s, the advertising industry especially had experimented extensively with this new technology and produced startling images by combining photographic images in unlikely combinations. By the 1990s, scanners had improved greatly in resolution as well as dropping in price and were becoming standard accessories for the home computer. Photo-quality inkjet printers were a desktop standard by the early 2000s.

Scanners and other image-input devices have been made possible largely because of charge-coupled devices or CCDs. A CCD is an integrated circuit that produces an electrical charge that is unique to light striking a sensor element in the circuit. They are used in cameras (still and video), scanners, high definition televisions (HDTVs), and many other image-makers. Their speed and sensitivity has improved dramatically since they were first introduced in the 1970s, and they have made imaging devices affordable for desktop use.

Scanners are available in a wide range of models that use different techniques. Desktop versions scan flat photographs in either black and white or color (color uses three scans to capture the basic image in black and white and then add color in two scans), and scanners for 35-millimeter slides are also in desktop sizes and are often used for professional work.

Part of the attraction of electronic photography is the fact that images can be compressed as digital files and stored in a number of ways. Magnetic diskettes, rewritable CD-ROMS that use optical memory and recover images with laser readers, and cards and chips offer storage options depending on uses and cost. They also make the “electronic darkroom” possible for retouching and altering images; techniques for modifying photographs form the bridge between photographic images and computer-generated ones.

Technologies that are affordable by the general public may still have some limitations in quality, especially in resolution (clearness of the image), shading and color ranges, and saturation. Systems used to make commercials and magazine ads, however, produce high-quality images.