Is there a chemical reaction when you take a picture with an electronic camera? If so, what new compound is produced?

There's no chemical reaction and therefore no new substance formed when an electronic or digital camera captures an image. A digital camera has a light sensor, which is an array of pixels (picture elements) that use the same principle as solar cells. Photons of light that hit the sensor cause electrons to be released, creating electrical charge. This is an application of the Photoelectric Effect that was first observed by Albert Einstein. The sensor reads the...

There's no chemical reaction and therefore no new substance formed when an electronic or digital camera captures an image. A digital camera has a light sensor, which is an array of pixels (picture elements) that use the same principle as solar cells. Photons of light that hit the sensor cause electrons to be released, creating electrical charge. This is an application of the Photoelectric Effect that was first observed by Albert Einstein. The sensor reads the brightness value of each pixel based on the number of electrons released and stores the set of values as a digital image file.

Film photography uses chemical reactions to capture light and to reproduce the image. When the camera shutter opens light hits an emulsion on the film that contains silver iodide crystals. The silver ion is reduced to metallic silver when exposed to light, and darkens the film. Excess silver iodide is removed during processing, creating a stable negative. Light is passed through the negative onto light-sensitive paper to reproduce the image.