Digital camera

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Written by: The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica

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Digital camera, device for making digital recordings of images. Texas Instruments Incorporated patented the first filmless electronic camera in 1972. In 1981 Sony Corporation brought out a commercial electronic model, which used a “mini” computer disk drive to store information captured from a video camera. As the cost of electronic components declined and the resolution of the cameras improved, the Eastman Kodak Company began selling professional digital cameras in 1991. Kodak and Apple Computer, which supplied the software for transferring the digital images to a personal computer, introduced the first consumer model in 1994.