There is a Digital Revolution taking place!
Ok I know, in the days of the ever expanding internet, ultra high resolution television and the constantly changing telecommunication industry the words Digital Revolution have for the most part lost their meaning. Be that as it may, this time these words really do mean something.

There is, without question a revolution taking place and it involves photography. Digital photography...

When traditional photographic hardware and film companies like Kodak, Nikon, Agfa, Canon, Fuji, Olympus and Pentax are spending countless fortunes while locked in fierce competition with one another, attempting to come up with the latest hot consumer digital camera, it does not take a genius to figure out that you have something major going on within the photography industry. Now throw into the mix some electronic giants like Sony, Panasonic, Casio, Toshiba, Epson and Ricoh and you have yourself a full blown technological revolution taking place.

For the very first time since its inception some 160 years ago, the chemical/film photographic process is in real danger of going the way of the 8-track Tape Players and Zeppelins. That is not to say the traditional process will go completely away. More likely it will be relegated to the status of 'high art', much like black and white photography is today.

There is a dilemma. Not for you and I the consumer, but for companies like Kodak, Agfa and Fuji for example. Have a look at: "Is Kodak's 3rd Quarter Demise an Indicator of the Death of Silver Halide Film?". The dilemma ultimately being "Gee, how do we want to make our money and how much will it cost us to get there".

There are a number of forces at work that for our money guarantee digital being the consumers destiny:

The quality of the image produced by affordable digital cameras is skyrocketing. Cameras working with 2 and 3 million pixels are now common place. This kind of resolution in a consumer camera was simply unheard not long ago. Soon it will be 4, 6 and 8 million pixels. Digital processing in these pixel ranges rival and surpasses the quality of the traditional photographic film process.

The cost of the high end quality camera is plummeting. A 2-megapixel (1 megapixel = 1 million pixels) digital camera that yields 1760x1168 JPEG images can easily be had for less than $390.00. At the same time cameras, which produce wonderful 640 x 480 images starting at $100 are becoming common place. Competition among the major manufacturers for your digital dollar is fierce. It's a buyers paradise.

The average consumer, not interested in working with and printing out their own photos, will soon learn the ease by which the digital image can become a hard copy photograph. In fact it is becoming as easy and economical as a trip to the local one hour photo counter. In addition to the numerous digital to print services offered via the net (send them the image file they send back prints) on Sept 20, 2000 - The SanDisk Corporation and Photo-Me International unveiled the world's first silver halide processing digital photo kiosk in Cologne Germany. Basically this means that in the very near future (perhaps by the end of the year) a consumer will be able to walk up to a kiosk, inserts his cameras memory card and about two minutes later the print processor starts kicking out 4x6 prints. If the customers want they may first view, crop and tweak their photos via a built-in monitor and software controls. Industry watchers worldwide predict that this venture and ones like it will accelerate the sale of digital cameras and the widespread adoption of digital photography at an expediential rate.

But why even bother with the kiosk? For under $200 you can walk home with a color printer that will give you prints from you digital camera that will rival any onetime use camera and one hour photo shop in town. Chances are you already own such a printer.

Bellow are links to a number of different "Digital Photo Of The Day" websites. These sites represent just a fraction of what is available on the web. Upon visiting these sites you will discover that there is also a wealth of information about digital photography available at each and every one of them.

This is a great time to move into this new form of photography. The instant gratifications and results afforded us via this medium are fantastic. No more buying film, guessing at exposers and waiting for the lab to print our pics. Now we aim, shoot, look and save. Did not like the results the first time? No problem, just re-shoot it until you get it right. You see, this is one of the beauties of digital photography. It makes us better photographers. It affords us the ability to learn without cleaning out our wallets.