Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!. If you were a camera nut, an amateur or professional photographer around 1998 to 2004, you were probably aware that a transition from film cameras to digital ones was occurring. There were some small digital cameras prior to that time, but they were expensive and their image quality was not impressive. Two years or so before 2000, the digital single-lens reflex cameras began to appear, with many advantages over the small digital cameras – mostly better image quality in a familiar form factor. DSLRs also could be used with a variety of lenses that already existed. The advantage of the DSLR was obvious to anyone because a new photo could be viewed right on the camera back instantly. There was no more buying film, loading and unloading film, hoping the exposures were correct, dropping the film off somewhere for development, waiting, and then having to retrieve the photos and pay for them. Or no more developing your own film at home if you had the equipment and time. You could also directly download images to your home computer and begin editing immediately instead of having to scan negatives or transparencies first if you had a scanner, or pay to have it done for you. The digital workflow was much more convenient and efficient.