Chapter Four - Working in the Digital Age

Digital Single-Lens Reflex Camera

DSLR/ Film

The technology known to replace the film-based SLRS’s during the 2000s, has become the most common type of interchangeable lens cameras used as of 2014.  The DSLR is the first camera to include the optics and instruments of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor.  Unlike photographic film, the reflex design is the main difference between a DSLR and other widely used digital cameras. 

“Digital photography, how is it making us think about images,about who we are as image makers, and what we can do with images.” Mentioned Tim Hetherington.

DSLR cameras allowed for the first photographers to express a new method in photography: depth of field. Photo by Deepak Photography

With the technological advancement with DSLR cameras, we are now able to have more of a flexible ability to experience as image-makers. The designs of the DSLR cameras are vastly different than previous camera innovations.   They typically use interchangeable lenses, a moveable mechanical mirror system, matte focusing screen, condenser lens, and a pentamirror to an optical viewfinder. 

The focus ability can be manual or automatic, which allows a convenient and less restricted way to capture certain photographs.  In comparison to the newer development of mirrorless interchanble-lens cameras, the mirror/prism (pentamirror) system is the most effective advancement that has changed the systematic difference in image capture.  The pentamirror is direct, accurate and quick, allowing a visual preview time with separate use of autofocus and an improvement in exposure metering sensors.

February 15, 1999 Nikon announced it was working on a “new professional class, high quality digital Single Lens Reflex Camera.  In June that same year, the company released the D1, the worlds first DSLR model.  Because of this advancement in photography, newspapers began to see how their business of print was slowly just beginning to dwindle.  “The digital word has begun, D1 replacing all film at forward-looking newspapers” said photographer, Ken Rockwell.

Looking back at something so complex and articulate such as the wet-plate collodion process to something so concrete like the DSLR- it’s amazing.  There was no denying, as Quinn Jacobson said, “wet place collodion photography is both somewhat difficult and dangerous to do.”  The process itself was seen as advancement in photography, pre-digital of course, I saw the wet-plate collodion process as the advancement in the use of light that was then developed into negatives.  As historians and other photojournalists, they have learned from the past inventions to develop a stronger advancement in the technology we see today.   Although with the DSLR we see a major improvement in the way the process of photography is executed, but with the correct understanding, the same past methods still apply.  Lighting, vision, and the ability to construct a direct and accurate photograph applies to both methods (then and now). 

Wet Plate Collodion Process is still practiced today.  Photo Credit: Studio Q

“Early on, cameras were bulky and file sizes were small, around 1 megapixel or lower, and image quality was rough in low-light situations. In a furious competition for market share, camera makers rushed to make improvements.”

As Chris Wilkins explained, the camera/film market is rapidly and constantly expanding, allowing for many developers to construct newly developed techniques.  The collodion process was an advancement the 19th century saw,  the DSLR was something the 21^st century was introduced with that made the art more concrete, fast and visually pleasing.  But with that said, the market is still constantly revolving.

Since 2008 the DSLR has now shared advancements in video capture.  Manufacturers have enacted a feature known as an HDSLR or DSLR video shooter, first introduced with the Nikon D90 with an exclusive HD movie mode. Video functions have continued to improve since the introduction of the HDSLR, an example today would be the popularity in blu-ray disc and Digital Cinema Initiatives.   

The ability to strive for an improvement in photography have all begun with the first photograph ever to be taken.  And since then the technology has adapted,  photographers have discovered abstraction, and constant innovations have provided a worldwide affect.  The collodion process and the first release of a DSLR camera have singularly competed in a historical advancement, with one universal goal remaining the same...Create photography, create art and express emotions and attitude; never denying the fact that photojournalism will always remain, regardless of where technology may take us!  

"The ease of digital manipulation that apps like Instagram allow, with their prettifying filters and antique effects, gives pause to some purists, who feel such transformations run counter to the documentary spirit of journalism. I think that’s always a conversation in photojournalism and a very important one." Said Time’s director of photography, Kira Pollack.