Film-based photos are one of most common genealogically valuable documents that genealogists acquire. In some instances, the number of photos acquired can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true, some genealogists are fortunate to have any images of their ancestors. The earliest photographs date from the 1850s but photography only became common from about 1870. Film photography is no a specialist interest among photographers. Almost all photography is now done digitally.
The first digital camera was made in 1975 by Kodak engineer Steve Sasson. The original digital camera was about the size of a breadbox, and it took 23 seconds to capture a single image. See "
Timeline: The evolution of digital cameras, from Kodak’s 1975 digital camera prototype to the iPhone." The Apple QuickTake camera in 1994 is considered to be the first digital camera under a $1000 that was generally available. The QuickTake camera has a sensor that was slightly more than 1 Megapixel. In 2007, Apple introduced the first iPhone with a built-in camera with a 2MP (megapixel) sensor and 2GBs of memory.
Much of the advancement of present-day smartphones has focused on the built-in camera. Some smartphones are being advertised with up to 200MP sensors. But close examination of the claims show that the high number is actually equivalent to a 12.5MP camera, the ones current installed in Apple iPhones.
For genealogists, the smartphone camera revolutionizes research. A researcher, with permission from a library or archive, can collect images of individual records making obsolete the need to use paper and pencil to make handwritten copies. Meanwhile, digitization efforts by a multitude of online websites are adding billions of digital copies every year.
What about the existing collections of photos and documents in the possession an individual genealogist? New digitization equipment is measurably speeding up the process. My daughter and her family recently spent a couple of days removing over 9,000 photos from a pile of photograph albums. They then took the photographs to the Brigham Young University Family History Library and digitized the entire 9,000+ images in a few hours. The whole process could have been accomplished in two days. They used the library's high speed Epson FastFoto Wireless Photo & Document Duplex Scanner that can scan as fast as 1 photo per second at 300 dpi (a resolution of 300 dots-per-inch) Higher resolution scanning is available but takes measurably longer to produce and image. In this case, there is no intention of discarding the original photos, but as many of us have noticed, the quality of paper-based photos deteriorates over time.
If you own a smartphone, you already have a way to digitize your documents. Several tools have been developed to enhance the use of smartphones in digitization process from stabilization devices such as tripods and boom arms to light boxes.
One of the most sophisticated and reasonably priced solution is the
Shotbox.me. This device expands you ability to take good photos using you smartphone or even a dedicated digital camera.
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