The conversion of the photographs to a digital format. Standard 35mm film would also represent a sizeable sum for anything more than three or four photographs per building. On top of the cost and storage is the time spent in digitising each picture and that in itself would take years. The output from the CCD is then stored in a memory card or on a floppy disk. A computer can then read the card or disk and the image can be stored for later retrieval.
Digital cameras do have their drawbacks.
The major disadvantage at the present time is the low resolution of the images compared to conventional photography. Digital cameras currently produce images in the range of several hundred to a couple of thousand pixels across the image while conventional cameras have an equivalent resolution of tens of thousands of pixels. The average digital camera also lacks many of the features found on conventional 35mm SLR cameras thus making it more difficult to use effectively in the demanding conditions found in the fieldwork discussed here. Although digital cameras allow many images to be made there is still the decision as to what should be recorded. During the course of the current project more and more subjects have been included and the range and quality of the imaging has increased.