The Digital Camera: The Amateur Scientist's Most Important Instrument

Forrest M. Mims III

In 1888, high school dropout and amateur scientist George Eastman began selling the first successful camera that anyone could use. His camera was called the Kodak, and his slogan was "You press the button, we do the rest."

In 1948, college dropout Edmund Land introduced what many said was impossible, the first camera to make nearly instant photographic prints.

Only a decade or so ago, digital photography revolutionized the inventions of Eastman and Land, and now both of the companies they founded are among many that make and sell digital cameras.

Practical digital cameras arrived on the scene well after the advent of the personal computer. The combination has completely transformed photography. As most of you already know, today anyone equipped with a digital camera, computer and printer can produce in minutes what darkrooms and specialty shops once did in days.

Digital photographs can be trimmed, cropped and even retouched to correct poor lighting, bad contrast and color. All this can be done easily, under your complete control and for a fraction of the cost charged by photo labs.

Most of the photographs that have accompanied my "World of Science" column in The Citizen Scientist were made with one of several digital “point and shoot” cameras that cost a few hundred dollars each. Some photos were made with a fancier rig known as a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex). This camera is bigger, uses exchangeable lenses and provides complete control of the photographic process. It’s the camera I use for important photo assignments and opportunities, like photographing overpasses of the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle on two successive nights (for an example, see the Editorial in The Citizen Scientist for November 2007).

A good DSLR is much more expensive and provides far more control than a basic point-and-shoot consumer level camera. The good news is that even an inexpensive point-and-shoot camera can provide very high quality images for both amateur and professional scientists. Indeed, I've photographed the International Space Station using a Casio EX-Z850 point-and-shoot camera. You can see the results and read the details in Photographing the International Space Station, The Citizen Scientist, 02 June 2006.

Recently Andrea Ottesen of the University of Maryland learned about the value of a digital point-and-shoot camera when one of her photographs of a specimen of Irish moss, a beautiful and common variety of seaweed, tied for first place in the 2007 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

Ottesen’s photograph was made using an economical Canon ELPH 7-megapixel digital camera in natural sunlight. Her winning image graced the cover of the 28 September 2007 issue of Science, the world’s leading scientific magazine. An article inside described how the photo was selected by the judges. "'There was this gasp when this photo came up on the screen,’ says panel of judges member Felice Frankel. ‘We shouldn't forget that we don't need [complex equipment and techniques] to create beautiful representations.'"

A DSLR and some extra equipment permits amateur astronomers to acquire astonishing sky photographs, as in the case of astrophotographer Bob Townsend's remarkable super nova image in "Gallery" and his image of Comet Holmes in a news story, both in this installment of The Citizen Scientist. Tim Dolan knows Bob Townsend and sent this note about Bob's latest images:

"When Bob took the comet shot, he had intended to photograph this remnant of a super nova. He took the comet shot because seeing conditions were poor for the deep space shot. We could only dream of shots like this when we were in high school. Color film had three layers, each with different reciprocity failure rates. Great amounts of time had to be spent in a lab to get colors that were close. Now everything is digital, and amateurs can do nearly as well as pros on certain objects."

In my experience the digital camera is among the most powerful and flexible tools ever designed for amateur scientists and naturalists. So please join me in carrying a digital camera everywhere you go so those of us who have been doing so for years will look a bit more normal. Maybe you will capture a fabulous image that documents a rare event, records a discovery, wins a contest or becomes a magazine cover.

Be sure to consider sending your very best science-related photos for possible publication in the "Gallery" section of The Citizen Scientist. Please see instructions in any installment of Gallery.

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