The very first cameras came with little more than a tiny hole, a cover and a slot to hold the film. These days, digital cameras come with more features than the local Cineplex. From red-eye technology to wireless connectivity, even the simplest point-and-click cameras now offer users a crateload of tools to help make their pictures better with much less effort.

And many of those tools have come from just one company: Fotonation.

Founded just ten years ago by Eran Steinberg and Yury Prilutsky, the firm has created in-camera face detection systems, dust removal technology and fast JPG rotation. Its latest invention is a wireless connection that can send a three-megapixel mobile phone photo through the ether in less than 0.3 seconds. The company already supplies the world’s biggest camera-makers, including Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Pentax.

Steinberg’s comment to TakeGreatPictures.com, a site run by The Photoimaging Information Council, that “…people are relying on technology too much” might seem a little strange then. “For example, Ansel Adams would not have been a better photographer if he had used digital equipment,” he adds.

But in fact, that concern defines the way Fotonation sees the future — and it’s an approach that could inspire a change in the way photographers use technology.
For Fotonation, digital imaging has three advantages over film:

1. easier archiving;
2. analyzing;
3. correcting of images.

At the moment, most of that work is done with the help of a computer. Fotonation’s mission is to make it easier for photographers to do all of those functions on the camera itself.

Could Fotonation make computers as obsolete for photographers as film then? That’s a question you could be asking next time you upgrade your camera.

[tags]Fotonation, Take Great Pictures, Digital Imaging[/tags]