Digital technology has come in leaps and bounds over the last decade; this can dramatically be seen in photography. Sales of digital cameras have soared and few people would argue that photographers are living in dynamic and interesting times.

The first digital camera appeared in 1984, produced by Kodak it had a sensor that produced a 1.4 megapixel image, then in 1991 the first professional camera was produced a 1.3 megapixel sensor was housed in a Nikon camera body.

Since the mid 1990’s the manufacture and sale digital cameras started to increase, with Sony, Kodak and Casio all producing digital cameras. But the market was still lead by film. It was probably canon who did more than any other company to lead the way in the digital age, it produced EOS 1D, aimed at photojournalist it had a 4 megapixel camera. Then came the10D with a 6 megapixel senor, and then the 300D came on the market, it was the first DSLR to sell for under a $1000, a major break through in the digital age.

I bought my first digital camera in 1999, a SonyCyber shot, it had a sensor that produced an image of 2.1 megapixels, I still have it and it still produces reasonable images.

In this decade the sensors for camera have progressed at an unbelievable rate, my mobile phone has a sensor that will produce an image with a resolution of 5 megapixels.

Film camera are on there last legs, I do still shot on film. I picked up a Canon EOS500 for a fiver on Ebay and it producers great pictures, and I can even get the pictures scanned on to disc when they are developed. But in the main only professionals use film and then only in medium and large format cameras.

Cameras with sensors up to 12 megapixels are available with very little outlay, no matter what type of camera you use, a DSLR or a compact digital camera the quality of images that they can take are breathtaking.

In the next article we will consider the type of camera that best for the individual.