Photography in India has had a wonderful start. It started with what was called the Daguerreotype camera that began to be advertised in Calcutta after a year they were invented in France. During the pre-independence period, Photographic societies in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta were formed during the 1850s to provide impetus to the growth of photography in the country. In the absence of any other documentation process, photography was considered by the East India Company to be the most accurate and economical means of recording the architectural and archaeological monuments or for that matter any historical events for official records. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 also was a major cornerstone in development of photography in India, as post the rebellion the Britishers released many pictures from the movement for use in the newspapers in England.
The Indian photography scene thus went on from the daguerreotypes to the calotypes, dry plates, film, and finally to the modern day digital cameras.
The advent of Digital Photography…
It was in the winter of 1975, a young engineer by the name Steven Sasson who was working in the Applied Research Lab at Kodak tested a new device, which we today know by the name of the digital camera. Using leftover parts from the lab, the engineer assembled them together to create this device. This paved the way for the introduction of digital photography for the first time that by the turn of the century would become a global revolution. Thirty-five years later, Sasson was awarded by President Obama the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation award for this wonderful invention.
It however took another 15 years for the first digital camera to come out – Dycam Model 1 shipped in late 1990 was the first camera made available in the United States, though it was a big failure. Kodak unveiled the Nikon F3 that was successful in capturing images digitally and storing them in a hard drive and was also being taken aboard NASA spacecraft.
Following suit were brands like Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm that successfully came out with its own variations and camera models over time. By the late 1990s, digital cameras were starting to replace the previous analog (film) cameras and were largely preferred by professional photographers.
The first digital camera phone was brought in by Sharp in 2000 and by 2010high-end smartphones with built-in cameras started coming in, becoming a huge hit among the masses.
Cut to 2015, digital imaging and photography has succeeded in becoming a key part of everybody’s life and is used all over the world virtually across every industry for different applications. Users are seeing it as the 21st century’s most ground-breaking invention that is successfully creating, storing and disseminating digital images with ease.
Photography in India today…
With the coming of high-resolution digital photography, the Indian photography scenario has seen a new paradigm shift – photos and images are getting directly transferred to a computer without the image getting altered, and different types of editing software available in the market today are completely changing original photos.
With the advent of smartphones in the sub 10,000 category that comes with both a rear and a back camera, digital photography has become accessible to people even in tier 3, 4 and 5 towns. Also, with digital technology becoming pervasive, digital SLR cameras are becoming cheaper and better than what it was a few years back.
Digital photography has also become a prosperous industry over time and has along the way created career opportunities for young enthusiasts who have a flair for photography. There are photographers today who specialize in specific fields like Travel, Fashion, Wildlife, Food etc. Photography is also being taught as major courses in universities and institutes of learning.
Key Photography Players
The dawn of digital photography has brought many new players in the frame. However talking of digital cameras, the top 6 players in the industry today and their best-selling products in today’s date are –
CANON Canon PowerShot G1x
NIKON Nikon Coolpix P7700
FUJIFILM Fujifilm X100S
SONY Sony DSC RX100 II
PANASONIC Panasonic Lumix DMC LX7
OLYMPUS Olympus OM-D
-Samrita
