When digital cameras first hit the consumer market they were no bargain. They were bulky and so were the prices. Then they started to shrink in size and price which triggered their successful adoption by most of the casual picture taking public. From there, digital cameras have further downsized o where the ones incorporated into mobiles take a half decent snap shot or video that all but serious photographers would accept.
Now the metamorphic change is to bigger and more full featured digital cameras and the price has comes back to match the new inherent quality of these devices. But this rebirth is not a return to the old, but a whole new world of picture taking has erupted and the consumers are still asking for more. Picture, or video, capacity has grown.
SD memory cards allow in camera storage to rival the hard disc drives in desktop computers of recent memory and then with just the hot swap of another SD card and you can keep on shooting. New battery schemes and lens options have brought the current models of digital cameras up to par with the best consumer cameras of the pre-digital age. The last hurdle was in the lens department and now we have digital cameras with interchangeable, high quality lens options so the camera hobby has come full circle.