Digital photography, with the advent of reasonably priced mega‐pixel digital cameras and high quality inkjet printers, is starting to challenge conventional, silver halide based imaging systems in the profitable consumer markets. This article is designed to provide a systematic review of all the technologies required to support digital photography. The digital imaging chain provides the flow and structure for reviewing the important imaging technologies including camera optics, imaging sensors and architectures, sensor speed, color reproduction, compression, image processing and digital hardcopy. In addition to the evaluation of individual imaging technologies, a systematic, system‐wide image quality assessment is provided that takes into account image quality (sharpness) and the most common image artifacts associated with digital photography.