DAY 342

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Camera Phone

TALK AND SHOOT AT THE SAME TIME

A nearly ubiquitous piece of technology in much of the world, a camera phone is a cellular phone, which has a built-in device that can capture still photographs and, in some models, video. Camera phones generally have fixed focal lengths, perform badly in low-light situations, can have a long shutter lag, and, unlike digital cameras, usually do not have a USB connection or removable memory card. Yet, with over 2 billion cell phones in use, they are an immensely popular feature.

If there is one major advantage of camera phones over digital cameras, it is the ability to shoot a picture, save it as a jpeg file, and instantly upload and share photographs on the Internet, as opposed to connecting the camera to a computer, downloading images, and then uploading them.

The camera phone and its potential was first realized in 1997 when, using a device he designed, Philippe Kahn photographed his newborn daughter in the hospital and, within minutes, had distributed the image worldwide to over 1,000 of his friends and family members. A variety of companies actively pursued development of the technology that would make camera phones possible.

“There’s a plane in the Hudson!” Janis Krums took this famous photo of USAir flight 1549 with his cell phone camera before any news crew. Photo © Janis Krums.

More than a novel way to share snapshots, the camera phone has developed into an increasingly important part of the way we experience the world, with images of breaking news taken by average citizens showing up on TV, the Internet, and in periodicals. —DJG