Module 2: Learning Community Assignment

The photographic camera has a long history and has undergone many changes over time.  The beginning of the photographic camera dates back to the 4^th century when philosophers described the principles of optics and in the 1660’s when Isaac Newton discovered that light is composed of different colors.    The earliest camera were introduced in the 1800’s but required up to eight hours of light exposure and the image subsequently faded.  Throughout the 1800’s a number of individuals introduced new chemical processes and way to create and preserve photographic images, all based on the exposure to light.   In 1900 the “Brownie” was the first mass-marketed camera. The Brownie was followed by the 35mm still camera, the flash Bulb, film variations, the Polaroid camera, and the point and shoot camera (Bellis, 2010b).  In 1980 Sony demonstrated the first consumer camcorder and in 1990 the photo CD was introduced as a digital storage medium (Bellis, 2010b).  By the mid-2000 digital cameras were used by many photojournalists and becoming available to and accepted by the general public. 

While the introduction of the digital camera would seem like the next step in this cluster of technologic progression of the camera, it is not.  The modern day digital camera is not a result of the cluster of photographic cameras and camera related technologies, based on Newton’s knowledge of the light spectrum, but a rekindling of the technology from the early 1950’ used to capture live images by television cameras and to convert this information into electrical (digital) impulses which were saved to magnetic tape.  This was known as a video-tape recorder (VTR), which was funded by the Bing Crosby laboratories and was in common use by the television industry by 1956 (Bellis, 2010a).  Both those early television/video cameras and the digital cameras of today use a CCD (Charged Coupled Device) to sense light color and intensity of the image (http://www.electronics-manufacturers.com/products/digital-photography/ccd-camera/ ).   In addition in the 1960’s as part of the space race, NASA used a precursor to digital camera technologies to converted analog to digital signals with space probes to map the surface of the moon. 

Thus the emergence of the digital camera is an example of McLuhan’s idea that tetrads can grow as clusters or as chains (Thornburg, 2008). As I approached this assignment, I was certain this tetrad would be part of the cluster of the evolution of the photography.  However, as I learned more about the technology of digital cameras I realized it is an example of a chain because the digital camera diverts from the evolution of film and light exposure photography to the digitalization of live images.  Thus the technology of the digital camera is a reverse or rekindling of the technology used in the 1950’s and 1960 by the pioneers of the television industry and NASA scientists.   Here is a tetrad illustrating the emergence of the digital camera.

So what is next – maybe 4-dimensional or holographic photography?  Scientists at the University of Central Florida have a working prototype of a zoom lens that mimics the working of the human eye (Piquepaille, 2007).  Thus virtual photography will instantaneous dissemination may be on the horizon.

References:

Bellis, M. (2010a).  History of the digital camera.  About.com: inventors.   Retrieved 12/23/10 at: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldigitalcamera.htm

Bellis, M. (2010b).  Photographic timeline.  About.com: inventors.  Retrieved 12/23/10 at:  http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Photography.htm

Electronic Manufacturers (2007).  Retrieved 12/23/10 at:  http://www.electronics-manufacturers.com/products/digital-photography/ccd-camera/

Piquepaille, R. (2007).  Zoom liquid lenses for digital cameras.  Retrieved 12/23/10 at: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/emergingtech/zoom-liquid-lenses-for-digital-cameras/639

Thornburg, D. D. (2008b). Emerging technologies and McLuhan's Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.