The remediation of the camera in the digital age was primarily as a result of the shift from analog to digital technology. Watch this brief (2 min) video essay for a broad overview. The following videos expand on this technology that was fundamental to the birth of the digital camera.
In 1921 Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for his work on the photo-electric effect (Nobel Foundation, 2012); Einstein's work on the photo-electric effect laid the foundation for Boyle and Smith to create the charged coupling device (or CCD) in 1969, a chip capable of converting light into electricity ("CCD: Charged Coupled Devices", 2012). Smith has been quoted as saying "“After making the first couple of imaging devices, we knew for certain that chemistry photography was dead,” (Cassingham, 2011). However, at this time the CCD was mainly used for scientific, military, and research purposes. It would be a few more years before the CCD was used inside commercially available cameras. If you're interested in their work watch them explain it (warning: it is a long video and a bit technical, but the first two minutes are enough)!
In 1975, a young engineer by the name of Steven Sasson, working for Kodak, invented the world's first digital camera: an 8 pound franken-camera that was not the most practical or ergonomical device for taking photographs, but it laid the groundwork for the digital revolution of the camera and the photograph. Of course, others, besides Kodak, quickly realized the potential of Steven's invention, and they quickly began to remediate Steven's franken-camera, a remediation which you'll see in the next section.
Watch the following video for a glimpse of how digital cameras work.