Digital Paradox?

A recent event pushed me back into thinking (again!) about the entire discussion surrounding the use of computer based tools in photography. Some like to refer to this change in medium to the "digital revolution" while those somewhat less inclined to hyperbole politely describe it as an extension to the tool set. In fact it is neither, computers have been invading our lives continually since their first serious use in the 1940's. Photography is just the latest aspect of common human endeavor to become computerized.

First let's get rid of the notion that digital is something new. Mammals have had digits since their inception hundreds of millions of years ago. The word digital is purely marketing hype as those Wall Street geniuses were sure that trying to sell computerized cameras or e-cameras would not fly. They knew that the average consumer was a little computer phobic and they had to avoid "selling it like it is." That is, a camera that is a peripheral to a computer, just like a printer or a scanner.

Which brings me back to the event that triggered this discussion. I scanned a tube of glue and e-mailed the picture to my daughter. Her response was that she liked the photograph. Being the traditionalist that I am, my first response was that I needed to e-mail her back and clarify that this was not a photograph but a scan. Then it struck me. A computer scanner has a lens, a light sensor, and records a photographic image in binary (aka 0's and 1's) exactly like the so-called digital camera. It also has some chips that interpret and massage the incoming signals (light) before sending them on to my computer for storage. In fact the only fundamental difference between a scanner and a digital camera is portability.

So the next time someone tries to tell you that digital photography is nothing more than the next evolutionary step from film to a electronic sensor point out to them that a digital camera is nothing more than a computer peripheral. Computers have always been about inputs and outputs, zeros and ones, and none of that has changed from the day they first were created. Embrace the machine!