Читать книгу Collins Complete Photography Manual - Collins Dictionaries - Страница 9

Sony announced its Mavica digital camera in August 1981, but it was not until the late 1990s that production models were available in the shops. Technically the first Mavica was not a digital camera but a video camera, from which freeze-frame images were taken. Later models recorded onto floppy disks and then CDs, which made them extremely popular.

You might be surprised to learn that the first digital camera, the Sony Mavica, was announced as long ago as 1981, but it was not until 1990, when Kodak unveiled the DCS 100, that digital cameras became commercially available. Initially sales were slow, because the prices of digital equipment were high and the quality of output was low. However, as prices have tumbled and quality has improved, sales of digital cameras have sky-rocketed. These days not many people buy cameras that use film – sadly they have gone the way of the slide rule, the Betamax video recorder and the vinyl record. Digital is now the norm. In fact, some leading manufacturers have completely discontinued film models, and are focusing exclusively on digital.

So, when you first get started in photography, it makes sense to buy and use digital equipment, for all the reasons we gave in our introduction: economy, quality and immediacy.