What role does the computer play in electronic photographic documentation?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Computers are beginning to play a role in the area of project photographic documentation. The digital camera and the ability to capture frames off video makes the use of digital images very viable on today's jobsite. Digital cameras traditionally were expensive and hard to use. They are now easy to use and competitively priced. Photos from digital cameras can be directly loaded into a Windows- or Macintosh-based computer for storage. These photos can be compressed in size for storage, sent over the Internet to other locations to help visualize problems, or placed on electronic whiteboards for work group collaboration and problem solving by the architect, sub-consultants, the general contractor, and subcontractors. Depending on the particular camera, in-camera storage of images varies. Some cameras can carry only a limited number of images, but most come with removable memory cards. Today's camcorders are mostly digital; some have built-in hard drives, some record onto DVDs directly, and others use digital tapes. Many popular cell phones have built-in cameras and can take short clips of video. These cameras are not high resolution as stand-alone cameras are but are quickly catching up.