Digital photography
Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is stored as a computer file ready for further digital processing, viewing, electronic publishing, or digital printing.
Digital photography spans a wide range of applications with a long history. In the space industry, where much of the technology originated, it pertains to highly customized, embedded systems combined with sophisticated remote telemetry.
Any electronic image sensor can be digitized; this was achieved in 1951. The modern era in digital photography is dominated by the semiconductor industry, which evolved later. An early semiconductor milestone was the advent of the charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, first demonstrated in April 1970; the field has advanced rapidly and continuously ever since, paced by concurrent advances in photolithographic fabrication. A persistent challenge in semiconductor fabrication is that chips much larger than 1 cm2 are expensive to produce without defects, confining large image sensor formats compatible with traditional 35 mm optics to professional and prosumer markets.
As a product category at retail, apart from the enthusiast digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) category, most digital cameras now come with an electronic viewfinder, which approximates the final photograph in real time, which can also review and adjust (or delete) a captured photograph within seconds, making this a form of instant photography, as compared to most photochemical cameras from the preceding era.
Moreover, the onboard computational resources are usually able to perform aperture adjustment and focus adjustment (via inbuilt servomotors) as well as setting the exposure level automatically, so these technical burdens are removed from the photographer unless the photographer feels competent to intercede—and the camera offers traditional controls. As electronic devices by nature, most digital cameras are instant, mechanized, and automatic in some or all functions. Digital cameras may choose to emulate traditional manual controls (rings, dials, sprung levers, and buttons) or it may instead provide a touchscreen interface for all functions; most camera phones fall into the latter category.
In the creative space, digital photos are often combined with other digital images obtained from scanography and other methods that are often used in digital art or media art.
