A digital camera is a camera that captures images electronically instead of on film. When you press the button on a digital camera, it records the picture as computer data that can be stored on a memory card, transferred to a computer, and shared instantly online.

Before digital cameras became common in the late 1990s, photographers used film cameras that required you to finish an entire roll of film, take it to a store for developing, and wait days to see your pictures. You couldn't tell if a photo turned out well until you got the prints back. Digital cameras changed everything: you can see your picture immediately on the camera's screen, delete bad shots right away, and take hundreds of photos without worrying about running out of film.

The camera in your smartphone is a digital camera. The amazing camera used by National Geographic photographers to capture wildlife in Antarctica is also a digital camera, just a much more sophisticated one. Digital cameras come in all sizes and capabilities, from tiny ones built into doorbells to professional models that cost thousands of dollars.

The word digital refers to how the camera stores information as numbers (digits) that computers can read, rather than as a physical image on film.