Electronic Photography

Uses for electronic still photography extend as far as the imagination. Some examples:

• In the styling/beauty salon, an operator can take an electronic photo of the customer and superimpose hundreds of hair styles and colors on the image, which is available from the camera immediately.
• Wholesale and retail buyers traveling long distances from main offices can photograph potential merchandise and have it reviewed and approved by management at home as quickly as the images can be transferred. Purchases can be negotiated on the same buying trip, saving travel time or communications time after the buyers return home.
• Journalism, including photojournalism, benefits by transferring photographic data over telephone lines via electronic mail (e-mail). Pictures from distant locations around the world are available for the next edition.
• Medical specialists can review photos of physical conditions or surgeries without the time and expense of moving either the patient or the specialist.
• Police departments and other crime investigation agencies can immediately transmit artists' renderings and photographs of suspects around the world. Still video is also critical to searches for missing children.
• Thanks to CCD technology, amateur stargazers can use still video cameras attached to their telescopes to photograph the skies. Standard CCDs have to modified to include a greater magnitude of resolution and a greater wavelength range, but, with these changes, sensitive images and even spectrogram, which are made with special optics that spread starlight into the spectrum, can be recorded through backyard telescopes with digital cameras attached.