A digital camera is a
camera
A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...
that captures photographs in
digital memory
Semiconductor memory is a digital electronic semiconductor device used for digital data storage, such as computer memory. It typically refers to devices in which data is stored within metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) memory cells on a sili ...
. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on
photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into
mobile device
A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...
s like
smartphones
A smartphone is a Mobile device, portable computer device that combines Mobile phone, mobile telephone and Mobile computing, computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities ...
with the same or more capabilities and features of dedicated cameras (which are still available). High-end, high-definition dedicated cameras are still commonly used by professionals and those who desire to take higher-quality photographs.
Digital and
digital movie camera
A digital movie camera for digital cinematography is a video camera that captures footage digitally rather than the historically used movie camera, which shoots on film stock. Different digital movie cameras output a variety of different acqu ...
s share an optical system, typically using a
lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'' ...
with a variable
diaphragm
Diaphragm may refer to:
Anatomy
* Thoracic diaphragm, a thin sheet of muscle between the thorax and the abdomen
* Pelvic diaphragm or pelvic floor, a pelvic structure
* Urogenital diaphragm or triangular ligament, a pelvic structure
Other
* Diap ...
to focus light onto an image pickup device. The diaphragm and
shutter admit a controlled amount of light to the image, just as with film, but the image pickup device is electronic rather than chemical. However, unlike film cameras, digital cameras can display images on a screen immediately after being recorded, and store and delete images from
memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...
. Many digital cameras can also record moving videos with
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
. Some digital cameras can
crop
A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydropo ...
and
stitch
Stitch, Stitches or Stitched may refer to:
Medical uses
*Stitch, a surgical suture, a medical device used to hold body tissues together after an injury or surgery
** Cervical cerclage, also known as a cervical stitch
*Husband stitch, a purported ...
pictures and perform other elementary
image editing.
History
The first semiconductor image sensor was the
charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are ...
(CCD), invented by
Willard S. Boyle and
George E. Smith at Bell Labs in 1969, based on
MOS capacitor
The metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, MOS-FET, or MOS FET) is a type of field-effect transistor (FET), most commonly fabricated by the controlled oxidation of silicon. It has an insulated gate, the voltage of which d ...
technology.
The
NMOS active-pixel sensor
An active-pixel sensor (APS) is an image sensor where each pixel sensor unit cell has a photodetector (typically a pinned photodiode) and one or more active transistors. In a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) active-pixel sensor, MOS field-e ...
was later invented by
Tsutomu Nakamura
Tsutomu is a masculine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
''Tsutomu can be written using different kanji characters. Here are some examples:
*勉, "make effort"
*務, "affairs"
*務武, "affairs, warrior"
*勤, "diligence"
*努, "strive"
The ...
's team at
Olympus
Olympus or Olympos ( grc, Ὄλυμπος, link=no) may refer to:
Mountains
In antiquity
Greece
* Mount Olympus in Thessaly, northern Greece, the home of the twelve gods of Olympus in Greek mythology
* Mount Olympus (Lesvos), located in Les ...
in 1985,
which led to the development of the
CMOS active-pixel sensor (CMOS sensor) by
Eric Fossum
Eric R. Fossum (born October 17, 1957) is an American physicist and engineer, which with the help of other JPL scientists, co-developed some features of the CMOS image sensor. He is currently a professor at Thayer School of Engineering in Dartm ...
's team at the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA ...
in 1993.
In the 1960s,
Eugene F. Lally
Eugene F. Lally (August 14, 1934 – July 28, 2014) was American aerospace engineer. He worked in the early 1960s on U.S. interplanetary space programs. Beside his space programs he was also an inventor and developed non-space products with his ow ...
of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was thinking about how to use a mosaic photosensor to capture digital images. His idea was to take pictures of the planets and stars while travelling through space to give information about the astronauts' position.
As with
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...
employee Willis Adcock's film-less camera (US patent 4,057,830) in 1972, the technology had yet to catch up with the concept.
The
Cromemco Cyclops
The Cromemco Cyclops, introduced in 1975 by Cromemco, was the first commercial all-digital camera using a digital metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) image sensor. It was also the first digital camera to be interfaced to a microcomputer. The dig ...
was an all-digital camera introduced as a commercial product in 1975. Its design was published as a hobbyist construction project in the February 1975 issue of ''
Popular Electronics'' magazine. It used a 32×32 metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) image sensor, which was a modified MOS dynamic
RAM (
DRAM
Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxi ...
)
memory chip.
Steven Sasson, an engineer at
Eastman Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
, invented and built a self-contained electronic camera that used a CCD image sensor in 1975.
Around the same time,
Fujifilm
, trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals.
The offerings from ...
began developing CCD technology in the 1970s.
Early uses were mainly military and scientific; followed by medical and news applications.
Nikon
(, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group.
Nikon's products include cameras, camera ...
has been interested in digital photography since the mid-1980s. In 1986, while presenting to
Photokina
Photokina (rendered in the promoters' branding as "photokina") is a trade fair held in Europe for the photographic and imaging industries. It is the world's largest such trade fair. The first Photokina was held in Cologne, Germany, in 1950, a ...
, Nikon introduced an operational prototype of the first
SLR-type electronic camera (Still Video Camera), manufactured by
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...
.
The Nikon SVC was built around a sensor 2/3″ charge-coupled device of 300,000
pixels
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...
. Storage media, a magnetic floppy disk inside the camera allows recording 25 or 50 B&W images, depending on the definition. In 1988, Nikon released the first commercial electronic single-lens reflex camera, the QV-1000C.
At Photokina 1988, Fujifilm introduced the FUJIX DS-1P, the first fully digital camera, capable of saving data to a semiconductor
memory card
A memory card is an electronic data storage device used for storing digital information, typically using flash memory. These are commonly used in digital portable electronic devices. They allow adding memory to such devices using a card in a soc ...
. The camera's memory card had a capacity of 2 MB of
SRAM (static random-access memory), and could hold up to ten photographs. In 1989, Fujifilm released the FUJIX DS-X, the first fully digital camera to be commercially released.
In 1996,
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems ...
's 40 MB flash memory card was adopted for several digital cameras.
The first commercial
camera phone
A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color cam ...
was the
Kyocera
is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunic ...
Visual Phone VP-210, released in Japan in May 1999.
It was called a "mobile videophone" at the time, and had a 110,000-
pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the s ...
front-facing camera
A front-facing camera, commonly known as a selfie camera, is a common feature of cameras, mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops, and some handheld video game consoles. While stand-alone cameras face forward, away from the operator, tab ...
.
It stored up to 20 JPEG
digital images
A digital image is an image composed of picture elements, also known as ''pixels'', each with ''finite'', '' discrete quantities'' of numeric representation for its intensity or gray level that is an output from its two-dimensional functions f ...
, which could be sent over e-mail, or the phone could send up to two images per second over Japan's
Personal Handy-phone System (PHS)
cellular network
A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called "cells", each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically th ...
.
The
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
SCH-V200, released in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
in June 2000, was also one of the first phones with a built-in camera. It had a
TFT liquid-crystal display
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but ...
(LCD) and stored up to 20
digital photo
Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image i ...
s at 350,000-pixel resolution. However, it could not send the resulting image over the telephone function, but required a computer connection to access photos.
The first mass-market camera phone was the
J-SH04, a
Sharp J-Phone
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...
model sold in Japan in November 2000.
It could instantly transmit pictures via cell phone telecommunication. By the mid-2000s, higher-end
cell phones
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
had an integrated digital camera and by the early 2010s, almost all
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s had an integrated digital camera.
Image sensors
The two major types of digital image sensor are CCD and CMOS. A CCD sensor has one amplifier for all the pixels, while each pixel in a CMOS active-pixel sensor has its own amplifier. Compared to CCDs, CMOS sensors use less power. Cameras with a small sensor use a
back-side-illuminated CMOS (BSI-CMOS) sensor. The
image processing
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimension ...
capabilities of the camera determine the outcome of the final image quality much more than the sensor type.
Sensor resolution
The
resolution of a digital camera is often limited by the
image sensor
An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to make an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of c ...
that turns light into discrete signals. The brighter the image at a given point on the sensor, the larger the value that is read for that pixel.
Depending on the physical structure of the sensor, a
color filter array may be used, which requires
demosaicing to recreate a
full-color image. The number of pixels in the sensor determines the camera's "
pixel count
Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail.
Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how ...
".
In a typical sensor, the pixel count is the product of the number of rows and the number of columns. For example, a 1,000 by 1,000 pixel sensor would have 1,000,000 pixels, or 1
megapixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...
.
Resolution options
Firmwares' resolution selector allows the user to optionally lower the resolution, to reduce the file size per picture and extend lossless
digital zooming.
A lower resolution extends the number of remaining photos in free space, postponing the exhaustion of space storage, which is of use where no further data storage device is available, and for captures of lower significance, where the benefit from less space storage consumption outweighs the disadvantage from reduced detail.
Image sharpness
An image sharpness is presented through the crisp detail, defined lines, and its depicted contrast. Sharpness is a factor of multiple systems throughout the DSLR camera by its
ISO, resolution, lens and the lens settings, the environment of the image and its post processing. Images have a possibility of being too sharp but it can never be too in focus.
A digital camera resolution is determined by a digital sensor. The digital sensor indicates a high level of sharpness can be produced through the amount of noise and grain that is tolerated through the lens of the camera. Resolution within the field of digital still and digital movie is indicated through the camera's ability to determine detail based on the distance which is then measured by frame size, pixel type, number, and organization although some DSLR cameras have resolutions limited it almost impossible to not have the proper sharpness for an image. The ISO choice when taking a photo effects the quality of the image as high ISO settings equates to an image that is less sharp due to increased amount of noise allowed into the image along with too little noise can also produce an image that is not sharp.
Methods of image capture
Since the first digital backs were introduced, there have been three main methods of capturing the image, each based on the hardware configuration of the sensor and color filters.
''Single-shot'' capture systems use either one sensor chip with a
Bayer filter
A Bayer filter mosaic is a color filter array (CFA) for arranging RGB color filters on a square grid of photosensors. Its particular arrangement of color filters is used in most single-chip digital image sensors used in digital cameras, ca ...
mosaic, or three separate image sensors (one each for the
primary additive colors red, green, and blue) which are exposed to the same image via a
beam splitter
A beam splitter or ''beamsplitter'' is an optical device that splits a beam of light into a transmitted and a reflected beam. It is a crucial part of many optical experimental and measurement systems, such as interferometers, also finding wid ...
(see
Three-CCD camera
A three-CCD (3CCD) camera is a camera whose imaging system uses three separate charge-coupled devices (CCDs), each one receiving filtered red, green, or blue color ranges. Light coming in from the lens
A lens is a transmissive optical de ...
).
''Multi-shot'' exposes the sensor to the image in a sequence of three or more openings of the lens
aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An ...
. There are several methods of application of the multi-shot technique. The most common was originally to use a single image sensor with three filters passed in front of the sensor in sequence to obtain the additive color information. Another multiple shot method is called
microscanning Microscanning is a method for increasing resolution of digital cameras. With the color co-site sampling identically colored pixels in several frames of the specimen, obtained by moving the sensor with a piezo mechanism in a regular raster, are co ...
. This method uses a single sensor chip with a Bayer filter and physically moves the sensor on the focus plane of the lens to construct a higher resolution image than the native resolution of the chip. A third version combines these two methods without a Bayer filter on the chip.
The third method is called ''scanning'' because the sensor moves across the focal plane much like the sensor of an
image scanner
An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. Commonly used in offices are variations of the desktop ''flatbed scanner'' ...
. The ''linear'' or ''tri-linear'' sensors in scanning cameras utilize only a single line of photosensors, or three lines for the three colors. Scanning may be accomplished by moving the sensor (for example, when using
color co-site sampling
Colour co-site sampling is a system of photographic colour sensing, wherein 4, 16 or 36 images are collected from the sensor and merged to form a single image. Each subsequent image physically moves the sensor by exactly one pixel, in order to col ...
) or by rotating the whole camera. A digital
rotating line camera offers images consisting of a total resolution that is very high.
The choice of method for a given capture is determined largely by the subject matter. It is usually inappropriate to attempt to capture a subject that moves with anything but a single-shot system. However, the higher color fidelity and larger file sizes and resolutions that are available with multi-shot and scanning backs make them more attractive for commercial photographers who are working with stationary subjects and large-format photographs.
Improvements in single-shot cameras and image file processing at the beginning of the 21st century made single shot cameras almost completely dominant, even in high-end commercial photography.
Filter mosaics, interpolation, and aliasing
Most current consumer digital cameras use a Bayer filter mosaic in combination with an optical
anti-aliasing filter
An anti-aliasing filter (AAF) is a filter used before a signal sampler to restrict the bandwidth of a signal to satisfy the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem over the band of interest. Since the theorem states that unambiguous reconstruc ...
to reduce the aliasing due to the reduced sampling of the different primary-color images.
A demosaicing algorithm is used to
interpolate color information to create a full array of RGB image data.
Cameras that use a beam-splitter single-shot
3CCD
A three-CCD (3CCD) camera is a camera whose imaging system uses three separate charge-coupled devices (CCDs), each one receiving filtered red, green, or blue color ranges. Light coming in from the lens is split by a beam-splitter prism into thr ...
approach, three-filter multi-shot approach, color co-site sampling or
Foveon X3 sensor do not use anti-aliasing filters, nor demosaicing.
Firmware
In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide ...
in the camera, or a software in a raw converter program such as
Adobe Camera Raw
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...
, interprets the raw data from the sensor to obtain a full color image, because the
RGB color model requires three intensity values for each pixel: one each for the red, green, and blue (other color models, when used, also require three or more values per pixel).
A single sensor element cannot simultaneously record these three intensities, and so a color filter array (CFA) must be used to selectively filter a particular color for each pixel.
The Bayer filter pattern is a repeating 2x2
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
pattern of light filters, with green ones at opposite corners and red and blue in the other two positions. The high proportion of green takes advantage of properties of the human visual system, which determines brightness mostly from green and is far more sensitive to brightness than to hue or saturation. Sometimes a 4-color filter pattern is used, often involving two different hues of green. This provides potentially more accurate color, but requires a slightly more complicated interpolation process.
The color intensity values not captured for each pixel can be
interpolated from the values of adjacent pixels which represent the color being calculated.
Sensor size and angle of view
Cameras with digital image sensors that are smaller than the typical 35 mm film size have a smaller field or
angle of view
The angle of view is the decisive variable for the visual perception of the size or projection of the size of an object.
Angle of view and perception of size
The perceived size of an object depends on the size of the image projected onto the ...
when used with a lens of the same
focal length
The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system converges light, while a negative foca ...
. This is because angle of view is a function of both focal length and the sensor or film size used.
The
crop factor
In digital photography, the crop factor, format factor, or focal length multiplier of an image sensor format is the ratio of the dimensions of a camera's imaging area compared to a reference format; most often, this term is applied to digital c ...
is relative to the
35mm film format. If a smaller sensor is used, as in most digicams, the field of view is cropped by the sensor to smaller than the 35 mm full-frame format's field of view. This narrowing of the field of view may be described as crop factor, a factor by which a longer focal length lens would be needed to get the same field of view on a 35 mm film camera.
Full-frame digital SLR
A full-frame DSLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) with a 35 mm image sensor format (). Historically, 35 mm was one of the standard film formats, alongside larger ones, such as medium format and large format. The full-fra ...
s utilize a sensor of the same size as a frame of 35 mm film.
Common values for field of view crop in DSLRs using active pixel sensors include 1.3x for some
Canon (APS-H) sensors, 1.5x for
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
APS-C sensors used by Nikon,
Pentax
is a brand name used primarily by the Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company Ricoh for DSLR cameras, lenses, sport optics (including binoculars and rifle scopes), and CCTV optics. The Pentax brand is also used by Hoya Corpora ...
and
Konica Minolta and for Fujifilm sensors, 1.6 (APS-C) for most Canon sensors, ~1.7x for
Sigma
Sigma (; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; grc-gre, σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used ...
's
Foveon sensors and 2x for
Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
and Panasonic 4/3-inch sensors currently used by
Olympus
Olympus or Olympos ( grc, Ὄλυμπος, link=no) may refer to:
Mountains
In antiquity
Greece
* Mount Olympus in Thessaly, northern Greece, the home of the twelve gods of Olympus in Greek mythology
* Mount Olympus (Lesvos), located in Les ...
and Panasonic. Crop factors for non-SLR consumer compact and
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
cameras are larger, frequently 4x or more.
Sensor resolution
The
resolution of a digital camera is often limited by the
image sensor
An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to make an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of c ...
that turns light into discrete signals. The brighter the image at a given point on the sensor, the larger the value that is read for that pixel. Depending on the physical structure of the sensor, a
color filter array may be used, which requires
demosaicing to recreate a
full-color image. The number of pixels in the sensor determines the camera's "
pixel count
Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail.
Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how ...
". In a typical sensor, the pixel count is the product of the number of rows and the number of columns. Pixels are square and is often equal to 1, for example, a 1,000 by 1,000 pixel sensor would have 1,000,000 pixels, or 1
megapixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...
. On full-frame sensors (i.e., 24 mm 36 mm), some cameras propose images with 20–25 million pixels that were captured by 7.5–m
photosites, or a surface that is 50 times larger.
Types of digital cameras
Digital cameras come in a wide range of sizes, prices and capabilities. In addition to general purpose digital cameras, specialized cameras including
multispectral imaging
Multispectral imaging captures image data within specific wavelength ranges across the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths may be separated by filters or detected with the use of instruments that are sensitive to particular wavelengths, ...
equipment and
astrographs are used for scientific, military, medical and other special purposes.
Compacts
Compact cameras are intended to be portable (pocketable) and are particularly suitable for casual "
snapshots
Snapshot, snapshots or snap shot may refer to:
* Snapshot (photography), a photograph taken without preparation
Computing
* Snapshot (computer storage), the state of a system at a particular point in time
* Snapshot (file format) or SNP, a fil ...
".
Many incorporate a retractable lens assembly that provides optical zoom. In most models, an auto actuating lens cover protects the lens from elements. Most ruggedized or
water-resistant models do not retract, and most with
superzoom capability do not retract fully.
Compact cameras are usually designed to be
easy to use. Almost all include an automatic mode, or "auto mode", which automatically makes all camera settings for the user. Some also have manual controls. Compact digital cameras typically contain a small sensor which trades-off picture quality for compactness and simplicity; images can usually only be stored using lossy compression (JPEG). Most have a built-in
flash
Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional aliases
* Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed:
** Flash (Barry Allen)
** Flash (Jay Garrick)
** Wally West, the first Kid F ...
usually of low power, sufficient for nearby subjects. A few high end compact digital cameras have a
hotshoe for connecting to an external flash.
Live preview is almost always used to frame the photo on an integrated LCD. In addition to being able to take still photographs almost all compact cameras have the ability to record
video
Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...
.
Compacts often have
macro
Macro (or MACRO) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Macroscopic, subjects visible to the eye
* Macro photography, a type of close-up photography
* Image macro, a picture with text superimposed
* Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observat ...
capability and
zoom lenses, but the zoom range (up to 30x) is generally enough for
candid photography but less than is available on
bridge camera
Bridge cameras are cameras that fill the niche between relatively simple point-and-shoot cameras and interchangeable-lens cameras such as mirrorless cameras and single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs). They are often comparable in size and weigh ...
s (more than 60x), or the interchangeable lenses of DSLR cameras available at a much higher cost.
Autofocus
An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical syste ...
systems in compact digital cameras generally are based on a contrast-detection methodology using the image data from the live preview feed of the main imager. Some compact digital cameras use a hybrid autofocus system similar to what is commonly available on DSLRs.
Typically, compact digital cameras incorporate a nearly silent
leaf shutter
In photography, a shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period, exposing photographic film or a photosensitive digital sensor to light in order to capture a permanent image of a scene. A shutter can also be used to allo ...
into the lens but play a simulated camera sound for
skeuomorph
A skeuomorph (also spelled skiamorph, ) is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in the original. Skeuomorphs are typically used to make something new feel familiar in an effort t ...
ic purposes.
For low cost and small size, these cameras typically use
image sensor formats with a diagonal between 6 and 11 mm, corresponding to a crop factor between 7 and 4. This gives them weaker low-light performance, greater
depth of field
The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera.
Factors affecting depth of field
For cameras that can only focus on one object di ...
, generally closer focusing ability, and smaller components than cameras using larger sensors. Some cameras use a larger sensor including, at the high end, a pricey full-frame sensor compact camera, such as
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1, but have capability near that of a DSLR.
A variety of additional features are available depending on the model of the camera. Such features include
GPS, compass,
barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...
s and
altimeter
An altimeter or an altitude meter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth under water. The m ...
s.
Starting in 2011, some compact digital cameras can take 3D still photos. These 3D compact
stereo camera
A stereo camera is a type of camera with two or more lenses with a separate image sensor or film frame for each lens. This allows the camera to simulate human binocular vision, and therefore gives it the ability to capture three-dimensional ...
s can capture 3D panoramic photos with dual lens or even single lens for play back on a
3D TV
3D television (3DTV) is television that conveys depth perception to the viewer by employing techniques such as stereoscopic display, multi-view display, 2D-plus-depth, or any other form of 3D display. Most modern 3D television sets use an acti ...
.
In 2013, Sony released two add-on camera models without display, to be used with a smartphone or tablet, controlled by a
mobile application
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
via WiFi.
Rugged compacts
Rugged compact cameras typically include protection against submersion, hot and cold conditions, shock and pressure. Terms used to describe such properties include waterproof, freeze-proof, heatproof, shockproof and crushproof, respectively. Nearly all major camera manufacturers have at least one product in this category. Some are waterproof to a considerable depth up to 100 feet (30 m); others only 10 feet (3 m), but only a few will float. Ruggeds often lack some of the features of ordinary compact camera, but they have video capability and the majority can record sound. Most have image stabilization and built-in flash. Touchscreen LCD and GPS do not work under water.
Action cameras
GoPro
GoPro, Inc. (marketed as GoPro and sometimes stylized as GoPRO) is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. It manufactures action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video-editing software. Founded as Woodman ...
and other brands offer action cameras which are rugged, small and can be easily attached to
helmets
A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without prote ...
, arms, bicycles, etc. Most have wide angle and fixed focus, and can take still pictures and video, typically with sound.
360-degree cameras
The 360-degree camera can take picture or video 360 degrees using two lenses back-to-back and shooting at the same time. Some of the cameras are Ricoh Theta S, Nikon Keymission 360 and Samsung Gear 360. Nico360 was launched in 2016 and claimed as the world's smallest 360-degree camera with size 46 x 46 x 28 mm (1.8 x 1.8 x 1.1 in) and price less than $200. With
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
mode built-in stitching, Wifi, and Bluetooth, live streaming can be done. Due to it also being water resistant, the Nico360 can be used as action camera.
There are tend that action cameras have capabilities to shoot 360 degrees with at least 4K resolution.
Bridge cameras
Bridge cameras physically resemble DSLRs, and are sometimes called DSLR-shape or DSLR-like. They provide some similar features but, like compacts, they use a fixed lens and a small sensor. Some compact cameras have also PSAM mode. Most use live preview to frame the image. Their usual autofocus is by the same contrast-detect mechanism as compacts, but many bridge cameras have a
manual focus mode and some have a separate focus ring for greater control.
Big physical size and small sensor allow superzoom and wide aperture. Bridge cameras generally include an
image stabilization system to enable longer handheld exposures, sometimes better than DSLR for low light conditions.
As of 2014, bridge cameras come in two principal classes in terms of sensor size, firstly the more traditional 1/2.3" sensor (as measured by
image sensor format
In digital photography, the image sensor format is the shape and size of the image sensor.
The image sensor format of a digital camera determines the angle of view of a particular lens when used with a particular sensor. Because the image se ...
) which gives more flexibility in lens design and allows for handholdable zoom from 20 to 24 mm (35 mm equivalent) wide angle all the way up to over 1000 mm supertele, and secondly a 1" sensor that allows better image quality particularly in low light (higher ISO) but puts greater constraints on lens design, resulting in zoom lenses that stop at 200 mm (constant aperture, e.g. Sony RX10) or 400 mm (variable aperture, e.g. Panasonic Lumix FZ1000) equivalent, corresponding to an optical zoom factor of roughly 10 to 15.
Some bridge cameras have a lens thread to attach accessories such as wide-angle or
telephoto converters as well as filters such as UV or
Circular Polarizing filter and lens hoods. The scene is composed by viewing the display or the
electronic viewfinder
An electronic viewfinder (EVF) is a camera viewfinder where the image captured by the lens is displayed on a small screen (usually LCD or OLED) which the photographer can look through when composing their shot. It differs from a live preview s ...
(EVF). Most have a slightly longer
shutter lag In photography, shutter lag is the delay between triggering the shutter and when the photograph is actually recorded. This is a common problem in the photography of fast-moving objects or animals and people in motion. The term narrowly refers only t ...
than a DSLR. Many of these cameras can store images in a raw format in addition to supporting JPEG. The majority have a built-in flash, but only a few have a hotshoe.
In bright sun, the quality difference between a good compact camera and a digital SLR is minimal but bridge cameras are more portable, cost less and have a greater zoom ability. Thus a bridge camera may better suit outdoor daytime activities, except when seeking professional-quality photos.
Mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras
In late 2008, a new type of camera emerged, called a ''
mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera
A mirrorless camera is a photo camera featuring a single, removable lens and a digital display.
The camera does not have a reflex mirror or optical viewfinder like a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, but may have an electroni ...
''. It is technically a
DSLR camera that does not require a reflex mirror, a key component of the former. While a typical DSLR has a mirror that reflects light from the lens up to the optical viewfinder, in a mirrorless camera, there is no optical viewfinder. The image sensor is exposed to light at all times, giving the user a digital preview of the image either on the built-in rear LCD screen or an electronic viewfinder (EVF).
These are simpler and more compact than DSLRs due to not having a lens reflex system. MILCs, or mirrorless cameras for short, come with various sensor sizes depending on the brand and manufacturer, these include: a small 1/2.3 inch sensor, as is commonly used in bridge cameras such as the original
Pentax Q (more recent Pentax Q versions have a slightly larger 1/1.7 inch sensor); a 1-inch sensor; a
Micro Four Thirds sensor; an APS-C sensor found in Sony NEX series and
α "DSLR-likes",
Fujifilm X series
The Fujifilm X series is a line of digital cameras produced by Fujifilm. The series encompasses fixed lens and interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras and premium compact point-and-shoot cameras aimed at consumer, enthusiast and professional ph ...
,
Pentax K-01
Pentax K-01 is a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera announced in February 2012. It uses the Pentax K mount.
The camera was listed as discontinued in February 2013, but the following July was reintroduced to the Japanese market in a new whit ...
, and
Canon EOS M; and some, such as the
Sony α7, use a full frame (35 mm) sensor, with the
Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium format cameras, photographic equipment and image scanners based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company originally became known for its classic analog medium-format cameras that used a waist ...
X1D being the first medium format mirrorless camera. Some MILCs have a separate electronic viewfinder to compensate the lack of an optical one. In other cameras, the back display is used as the primary viewfinder in the same way as in compact cameras. One disadvantage of mirrorless cameras compared to a typical DSLR is its battery life due to the energy consumption of the electronic viewfinder, but this can be mitigated by a setting inside the camera in some models.
Olympus and Panasonic released many Micro Four Thirds cameras with interchangeable lenses that are fully compatible with each other without any adapter, while others have proprietary mounts. In 2014, Kodak released its first Micro Four Third system camera.
, mirrorless cameras are fast becoming appealing to both amateurs and professionals alike due to their simplicity, compatibility with some DSLR lenses, and features that match most DSLRs today.
Modular cameras
While most digital cameras with interchangeable lenses feature a lens-mount of some kind, there are also a number of modular cameras, where the shutter and sensor are incorporated into the lens module.
The first such modular camera was the Minolta Dimâge V in 1996, followed by the
Minolta Dimâge EX 1500
The Minolta Dimâge EX (also sold as EX 1500) is a digital camera, first marketed in 1998. Similar to the earlier Minolta Dimâge V of 1996, the Dimâge EX line was one of the first consumer point-and-shoot cameras released in the American marke ...
in 1998 and the
Minolta MetaFlash 3D 1500 in 1999. In 2009, Ricoh released the
Ricoh GXR modular camera.
At CES 2013, Sakar International announced the Polaroid iM1836, an 18MP camera with 1"-sensor with interchangeable sensor-lens. An adapter for
Micro Four Thirds, Nikon and K-mount lenses was planned to ship with the camera.
There are also a number of add-on camera modules for smartphones, they are called ''lens-style'' cameras (lens camera or smart lens). They contain all the essential components of a digital camera inside a
DSLR
A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor.
The reflex design scheme is the primary difference between ...
lens-shaped module, hence the name, but lack any sort of viewfinder and most controls of a regular camera. Instead, they are connected wirelessly and/or mounted to a smartphone to be used as its display output and operate the camera's various controls.
Lens-style cameras include:
*
Sony Cyber-shot QX series "Smart Lens" or "SmartShot" cameras, announced and released in mid 2013 with the Cyber-shot DSC-QX10. In January 2014, a firmware update was announced for the
DSC-QX10 and
DSC-QX100. In September 2014, Sony announced the Cyber-shot
DSC-QX30 as well as the
Alpha ILCE-QX1, the former an ultrazoom with a built-in 30x optical zoom lens, the latter opting for an interchangeable
Sony E-mount
The E-mount is a lens mount designed by Sony for their NEX ("New E-mount eXperience") and ILCE series of camcorders and mirrorless cameras. The E-mount supplements Sony's α mount, allowing the company to develop more compact imaging devices w ...
instead of a built-in lens.
* Kodak PixPro smart lens camera series, announced in 2014. These include: the 5X optical zoom SL5, 10X optical zoom SL10, and the 25X optical zoom SL25; all featuring 16MP sensors and 1080p video recording, except for the SL5 which caps at 720p.
*
ViviCam IU680 smart lens camera from Sakar-owned brand,
Vivitar, announced in 2014.
* Olympus Air A01 lens camera, announced in 2014 and released in 2015, the lens camera is an open platform with an
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
and can detach into 2 parts (sensor module and lens), just like the Sony QX1, and all compatible
Micro Four Thirds lenses can then be attached to the built-in lens mount of the camera's sensor module.
Digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR)
Digital
single-lens reflex camera
A single-lens reflex camera (SLR) is a camera that typically uses a mirror and prism system (hence "reflex" from the mirror's reflection) that permits the photographer to view through the lens and see exactly what will be captured. With twin l ...
s (DSLR) is a camera with a digital sensor that utilizes a reflex mirror to split or direct light into the viewfinder to produce an image.
The reflex mirror finds the image by blocking light to the camera's sensor and then reflecting it into the camera's pentaprism which allows it to be seen through the viewfinder.
When the shutter release is fully pressed the reflex mirror pulls out horizontally below the pentaprism briefly darkening the viewfinder and then opening up the sensor for exposure which creates the photo.
The digital image is produced by the sensor which is an array of photoreceptors on a microchip capable of recording light values. Many modern DSLRs offer the ability for "live view" or the framing of the subject emitted from the sensor onto a digital screen.
The sensor also known as a full-frame sensor is much larger than the other types, typically 18mm to 36mm on the diagonal (crop factor 2, 1.6, or 1).
The larger sensor permits more light to be received by each pixel; this, combined with the relatively large lenses provides superior low-light performance. For the same field of view and the same aperture, a larger sensor gives shallower focus. DSLRs can equip
interchangeable lens
A lens mount is an interface – mechanical and often also electrical – between a photographic camera body and a lens. It is a feature of camera systems where the body allows interchangeable lenses, most usually the rangefinder camera, singl ...
es for versatility by removing it from the lens mount of the camera, typically a silver ring on the front side of DSLRs. These lenses work in tandem with the mechanics of the DSLR to adjust aperture and focus. Autofocus is accomplished using sensors in the mirror box and on most modern lenses can be activated from the lens itself which will trigger upon shutter release.
Digital Still Cameras (DSC)
Digital Still Camera (DSC), such as the Sony DSC cameras, is a type of camera that doesn't use a reflex mirror. DSCs are like
point-and-shoot camera
A point-and-shoot camera, also known as a compact camera and sometimes abbreviated to P&S, is a still camera designed primarily for simple operation. Most use focus free lenses or autofocus for focusing, automatic systems for setting the exposure ...
s and are the most common type of cameras, due to their comfortable price and its quality.
Here are a list of DSCs:
List of Sony Cyber-shot cameras
Notes:
* DSC is an abbreviation for Digital Still Camera
* Models without a “V” suffix do not include built-in GPS functionality
D series
F series
G series
H series
All cameras used CCD sensors and had optical ima ...
Fixed-mirror DSLT cameras
Cameras with fixed semi-transparent mirrors, also known as DSLT cameras, such as the
Sony SLT cameras, are single-lens without a moving reflex mirror as in a conventional DSLR. A semi-transparent mirror transmits some of the light to the image sensor and reflects some of the light along the path to a pentaprism/pentamirror which then goes to an optical view finder (OVF) as is done with a reflex mirror in DSLR cameras. The total amount of light is not changed, just some of the light travels one path and some of it travels the other. The consequences are that DSLT cameras should shoot a half stop differently from DSLR. One advantage of using a DSLT camera is the blind moments a DSLR user experiences while the reflecting mirror is moved to send the light to the sensor instead of the viewfinder do not exist for DSLT cameras. Because there is no time at which light is not traveling along both paths, DSLT cameras get the benefit of continuous
auto-focus tracking. This is especially beneficial for burst-mode shooting in low-light conditions and also for tracking when taking video.
Digital rangefinders
A rangefinder is a device to measure subject distance, with the intent to adjust the focus of a camera's objective lens accordingly (
open-loop controller). The rangefinder and lens focusing mechanism may or may not be coupled. In common parlance, the term "rangefinder camera" is interpreted very narrowly to denote manual-focus cameras with a visually-read out optical rangefinder based on
parallax
Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby object ...
. Most digital cameras achieve focus through analysis of the image captured by the objective lens and distance estimation, if it is provided at all, is only a byproduct of the focusing process (
closed-loop controller).
Line-scan camera systems
A line-scan camera traditionally has a single row of
pixel sensor
Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are sensors of light or other electromagnetic radiation. There is a wide variety of photodetectors which may be classified by mechanism of detection, such as photoelectric or photochemical effects, or by ...
s, instead of a matrix of them. The lines are continuously fed to a computer that joins them to each other and makes an image. This is most commonly done by connecting the camera output to a
frame grabber which resides in a
PCI slot of an industrial computer. The frame grabber acts to buffer the image and sometimes provide some processing before delivering to the computer software for processing. Industrial processes often require height and width measurements performed by digital line-scan systems.
Multiple rows of sensors may be used to make colored images, or to increase sensitivity by TDI (
time delay and integration).
Many industrial applications require a wide field of view. Traditionally maintaining consistent light over large
2D areas is quite difficult. With a line scan camera all that is necessary is to provide even illumination across the “line” currently being viewed by the camera. This makes sharp pictures of objects that pass the camera at high speed.
Such cameras are also commonly used to make
photo finishes, to determine the winner when multiple competitors cross the finishing line at nearly the same time. They can also be used as industrial instruments for analyzing fast processes.
Line-scan cameras are also extensively used in imaging from
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...
s (see
push broom scanner
A push broom scanner, also known as an along-track scanner, is a device for obtaining images with spectroscopic sensors. The scanners are regularly used for passive remote sensing from space, and in spectral analysis on production lines, for exampl ...
). In this case the row of sensors is perpendicular to the direction of satellite motion. Line-scan cameras are widely used in scanners. In this case, the camera moves horizontally.
Superzoom cameras
Digital superzoom cameras are digital cameras that can zoom in very far. These superzoom cameras are suitable for people who have
nearsightedness.
The HX series is a series containing Sony's superzoom cameras like
HX20V,
HX90V and the newest HX99. HX stands for HyperXoom.
Light-field camera
This type of digital camera captures information about the light field emanating from a scene; that is, the intensity of light in a scene, and also the direction that the light rays are traveling in space. This contrasts with a conventional digital camera, which records only light intensity.
Integration into other devices
Many devices have a built-in digital camera, including, for example, smartphones, mobile phones, PDAs and laptop computers. Built-in cameras generally store the images in the
JPEG
JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and im ...
file format.
Mobile phones incorporating digital cameras were introduced in Japan in 2001 by
J-Phone
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...
. In 2003 camera phones outsold stand-alone digital cameras, and in 2006 they outsold film and digital stand-alone cameras. Five billion camera phones were sold in five years, and by 2007 more than half of the
installed base of all mobile phones were camera phones. Sales of separate cameras peaked in 2008.
Notable digital camera manufacturers
There are many manufacturers that lead in the production of digital cameras (commonly DSLRs). Each brand embodies different mission statements that differ them from each other outside of the physical technology that they produce. While the majority of manufacturers share modern features amongst their production of cameras, some specialize in specific details either physically on camera or within the system and image quality.
Market trends
Sales of traditional digital cameras have declined due to the increasing use of smartphones for casual photography, which also enable easier manipulation and sharing of photos through the use of
apps and web-based services. "Bridge cameras", in contrast, have held their ground with functionality that most smartphone cameras lack, such as optical zoom and other advanced features.
DSLRs have also lost ground to Mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC)s offering the same sensor size in a smaller camera. A few expensive ones use a full-frame sensor, just like DSLR professional cameras.
In response to the convenience and flexibility of smartphone cameras, some manufacturers produced "smart" digital cameras that combine features of traditional cameras with those of a smartphone. In 2012, Nikon and Samsung released the
Coolpix S800c and
Galaxy Camera
The Samsung Galaxy Camera is a point-and-shoot camera which is an Android based mobile device. Samsung announced the camera in August 2012, with the slogan "Camera. Reborn." The device was officially released on 8 November 2012, with web sales begi ...
, the first two digital cameras to run the Android operating system. Since this
software platform is used in many smartphones, they can integrate with some of the same services (such as
e-mail attachments,
social networks
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...
and
photo sharing
Image sharing, or photo sharing, is the publishing or transfer of digital photos online. Image sharing websites offer services such as uploading, hosting, managing and sharing of photos (publicly or privately). This function is provided through ...
sites) that smartphones do and use other Android-compatible software.
In an inversion, some phone makers have introduced smartphones with cameras designed to resemble traditional digital cameras. Nokia released the
808 PureView and
Lumia 1020 in 2012 and 2013; the two devices respectively run the
Symbian
Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian ...
and
Windows Phone
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...
operating systems, and both include a 41-megapixel camera (along with a camera grip attachment for the latter).
Similarly, Samsung introduced the Galaxy S4 Zoom, having a 16-megapixel camera and 10x optical zoom, combining traits from the
Galaxy S4 Mini with the Galaxy Camera.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-CM1 is an Android KitKat 4.4 smartphone with 20MP, 1" sensor, the largest sensor for a smartphone ever, with
Leica
Leica Camera AG () is a German company that manufactures cameras, optical lenses, photographic lenses, binoculars, rifle scopes and microscopes. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869 (Ernst Leitz Wetzlar), in Wetzlar, Germany.
...
fixed lens equivalent of 28 mm at F2.8, can take RAW image and 4K video, has 21 mm thickness. Furthermore, in 2018
Huawei P20 Pro is an android Oreo 8.1 has triple Leica lenses in the back of the smartphone with 40MP 1/1.7"
RGB sensor as first lens, 20MP 1/2.7"
monochrome
A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochr ...
sensor as second lens and 8MP 1/4" RGB sensor with 3x optical zoom as third lens. Combination of first lens and second lens will produce
bokeh
In photography, bokeh ( or ; ) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image. Bokeh has also been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and ...
image with larger
high dynamic range
High dynamic range (HDR) is a dynamic range higher than usual, synonyms are wide dynamic range, extended dynamic range, expanded dynamic range.
The term is often used in discussing the dynamic range of various signals such as images, videos, ...
, whereas combination of
mega pixel first lens and optical zoom will produce maximum 5x
digital zoom without loss of quality by reducing the image size to 8MP.
Light-field cameras were introduced in 2013 with one consumer product and several professional ones.
After a big dip of sales in 2012, consumer digital camera sales declined again in 2013 by 36 percent. In 2011, compact digital cameras sold 10 million per month. In 2013, sales fell to about 4 million per month. DSLR and MILC sales also declined in 2013 by 10–15% after almost ten years of double digit growth.
Worldwide unit sales of digital cameras is continuously declining from 148 million in 2011 to 58 million in 2015 and tends to decrease more in the following years.
Film camera sales hit their peak at about 37 million units in 1997, while digital camera sales began in 1989. By 2008, the film camera market had died and digital camera sales hit their peak at 121 million units in 2010. In 2002, cell phones with an integrated camera had been introduced and in 2003 the cell phone with an integrated camera had sold 80 million units per year. By 2011, cell phones with an integrated camera were selling hundreds of millions per year, which were causing a decline in digital cameras. In 2015, digital camera sales were 35 million units or only less than a third of digital camera sales numbers at their peak and also slightly less than film camera sold number at their peak.
Connectivity
Transferring photos
Many digital cameras can connect directly to a computer to transfer data:-
* Early cameras used the
PC serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in paralle ...
.
USB is now the most widely used method (most cameras are viewable as
USB mass storage), though some have a
FireWire
IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony a ...
port. Some cameras use
USB PTP mode for connection instead of USB MSC; some offer both modes.
* Other cameras use
wireless connections, via
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...
or
IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...
, such as the
Kodak EasyShare One.
Wi-Fi integrated Memory cards (SDHC, SDXC) can transmit stored images, video and other files to computers or smartphones. Mobile operating systems such as Android allow automatic upload and backup or sharing of images over Wi-Fi to photo sharing and
cloud services
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...
.
* Cameras with integrated Wi-Fi or specific Wi-Fi adapters mostly allow camera control, especially shutter release,
exposure
Exposure or Exposures may refer to:
People
* The Exposures, a pseudonym for German electronic musician Jan Jeline
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Exposure'' (film), a 1932 American film
* ''Exposure'', another name for the 1991 movie ...
control and more (
tethering) from computer or smartphone apps additionally to the transfer of media data.
* Cameraphones and some high-end stand-alone digital cameras also use cellular networks to connect for sharing images. The most common standard on cellular networks is the MMS
Multimedia Messaging Service
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from a mobile phone over a cellular network. Users and providers may refer to such a message as a PXT, a picture message, or a multimedia ...
, commonly called "picture messaging". The second method with smartphones is to send a picture as an
email attachment. Many old cameraphones, however, do not support email.
A common alternative is the use of a
card reader
A card reader is a data input device that reads data from a card-shaped storage medium. The first were punched card readers, which read the paper or cardboard punched cards that were used during the first several decades of the computer industry ...
which may be capable of reading several types of storage media, as well as high speed transfer of data to the computer. Use of a card reader also avoids draining the camera battery during the download process. An external card reader allows convenient direct access to the images on a collection of storage media. But if only one storage card is in use, moving it back and forth between the camera and the reader can be inconvenient. Many computers have a card reader built in, at least for SD cards.
Printing photos
Many modern cameras support the
PictBridge standard, which allows them to send data directly to a PictBridge-capable
computer printer
In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a persistent representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Diffe ...
without the need for a computer.
Wireless connectivity can also provide for printing photos without a cable connection.
An ''instant-print camera'', is a digital camera with a built-in
printer. This confers a similar functionality as an
instant camera which uses
instant film
Instant film is a type of photographic film that was introduced by Polaroid Corporation to produce a visible image within minutes or seconds of the photograph's exposure. The film contains the chemicals needed for developing and fixing the photog ...
to quickly generate a physical photograph. Such non-digital cameras were popularized by
Polaroid with the SX-70 in 1972.
Displaying photos
Many digital cameras include a video output port. Usually
sVideo
S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video ) is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video, typically at 525 lines or 625 lines. It encodes video luma and chrominance on two separate channe ...
, it sends a standard-definition video signal to a television, allowing the user to show one picture at a time. Buttons or menus on the camera allow the user to select the photo, advance from one to another, or automatically send a "slide show" to the TV.
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controll ...
has been adopted by many high-end digital camera makers, to show photos in their high-resolution quality on an
HDTV
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the ...
.
In January 2008,
Silicon Image
Silicon Image is a provider of semiconductors for the mobile, consumer electronics and personal computers (PCs). It also manufactures wireless and wired connectivity products used for high-definition content. The company’s semiconductor and IP p ...
announced a new technology for sending video from mobile devices to a television in digital form.
MHL sends pictures as a video stream, up to 1080p resolution, and is compatible with HDMI.
Some
DVD recorder
A DVD recorder is an optical disc recorder that uses optical disc recording technologies to digitally record analog or digital signals onto blank writable DVD media. Such devices are available as either installable drives for computers o ...
s and television sets can read memory cards used in cameras; alternatively several types of flash card readers have TV output capability.
Weather-sealing and waterproofing
Cameras can be equipped with a varying amount of environmental sealing to provide protection against splashing water, moisture (humidity and fog), dust and sand, or complete waterproofness to a certain depth and for a certain duration. The latter is one of the approaches to allow
underwater photography
Underwater photography is the process of taking photographs while under water. It is usually done while scuba diving, but can be done while diving on surface supply, snorkeling, swimming, from a submersible or remotely operated underwater ve ...
, the other approach being the use of waterproof housings. Many waterproof digital cameras are also shockproof and resistant to low temperatures.
Some waterproof cameras can be fitted with a waterproof housing to increase the operational depth range. The Olympus 'Tough' range of compact cameras is an example.
Modes
Many digital cameras have preset
modes for different applications. Within the constraints of correct exposure various parameters can be changed, including exposure, aperture,
focusing
Focusing may refer to:
* Adjusting an optical system to minimize defocus aberration
* Focusing (psychotherapy), a psychotherapeutic technique
See also
*Focus (disambiguation)
Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Fe ...
,
light meter
A light meter is a device used to measure the amount of light. In photography, a light meter (more correctly an exposure meter) is used to determine the proper exposure for a photograph. The meter will include either a digital or analog calcula ...
ing,
white balance
In photography and image processing, color balance is the global adjustment of the intensities of the colors (typically red, green, and blue primary colors). An important goal of this adjustment is to render specific colors – particularly n ...
, and equivalent sensitivity. For example, a
portrait
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this ...
might use a wider aperture to render the background out of focus, and would seek out and focus on a human face rather than other image content.
Few cameras are equipped with a voice note (audio-only) recording feature.
Scene modes
Vendors implement a variety scene modes in cameras' firmwares for various purposes, such as a "landscape mode" which prevents focusing on rainy and/or stained window glass such as a windshield, and a "sports mode" which reduces motion blur of moving subjects by reducing exposure time with the help of increased light sensitivity. Firmwares may be equipped with the ability to select a suitable scene mode automatically through
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machine
A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, moveme ...
.
Image data storage
Many camera phones and most stand alone digital cameras store image data in flash memory cards or other
removable media
Expandable storage is a form of computer storage that is designed to be inserted and removed from a system. Some forms of removable media, such as optical discs, require a reader to be installed in the computer, while others, such as USB flash dri ...
. Most stand-alone cameras use
SD format, while a few use CompactFlash or other types. In January 2012, a faster
XQD card format was announced. In early 2014, some high end cameras have two
hot-swappable memory slots. Photographers can swap one of the memory card with camera-on. Each memory slot can accept either Compact Flash or SD Card. All new Sony cameras also have two memory slots, one for its
Memory Stick
The Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity an ...
and one for SD Card, but not hot-swapable.
The approximate count of remaining photos until space exhaustion is calculated by the firmware throughout use and indicated in the viewfinder, to prepare the user for an impending necessary
hot swap
Hot swapping is the replacement or addition of components to a computer system without stopping, shutting down, or rebooting the system; hot plugging describes the addition of components only. Components which have such functionality are said ...
of the memory card, and/or
file offload.
A few cameras used other removable storage such as
Microdrive
The Microdrive is a registered trademark for miniature, 1-inch hard disks produced by IBM and Hitachi. These rotational media storage devices were designed to fit in CompactFlash (CF) Type II slots. The release of similar drives by other ma ...
s (very small
hard disk drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magn ...
s), CD single (185
MB), and
3.5" floppy disks (e. g. Sony
Mavica). Other unusual formats include:
* Onboard (internal) flash memory — Cheap cameras and cameras secondary to the device's main use (such as a camera phone). Some have small capacities such as 100 Megabytes and less, where intended use is buffer storage for uninterrupted operation during a memory card
hot swap
Hot swapping is the replacement or addition of components to a computer system without stopping, shutting down, or rebooting the system; hot plugging describes the addition of components only. Components which have such functionality are said ...
.
*
SuperDisk (LS120) used in two Panasonic digital cameras, the PV-SD4090 and PV-SD5000,
which allowed them to use both SuperDisk and 3.5" floppy disks
*
PC Card
In computing, PC Card is a configuration for computer parallel communication peripheral interface, designed for laptop computers. Originally introduced as PCMCIA, the PC Card standard as well as its successors like CardBus were defined and devel ...
hard drives — early professional cameras (discontinued)
*
Thermal printer
Thermal printing (or direct thermal printing) is a digital printing process which produces a printed image by passing paper with a thermochromic coating, commonly known as thermal paper, over a print head consisting of tiny electrically heat ...
— known only in one model of camera that printed images immediately rather than storing
*
Zink technology — printiing images immediately rather than storing
Mini CD vs Normal CD comparison.jpg, Mini CD
Mini CDs, or pocket CDs, are CDs with a smaller diameter and one-third the storage capacity of a standard 120 mm disc.
Formats
Amongst the various formats are the
* Mini CD single, a small disc. The format is mainly used for audio CD s ...
MicroDrive1GB.jpg, Microdrive (CF-II)
Intenso USB stick 8 GB-0289.jpg, USB flash drive
A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since fir ...
BASF diskette (1).jpg, 3.5" floppy disks
メモリースティック PRO,PRO DUO HIGH SPEED.jpg, Sony's Proprietary Memory Stick
The Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity an ...
Most manufacturers of digital cameras do not provide drivers and software to allow their cameras to work with
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
or other
free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, ...
. Still, many cameras use the standard
USB mass storage and/or
Media Transfer Protocol
The Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) is an extension to the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) communications protocol that allows media files to be transferred automatically to and from portable devices. Whereas PTP was designed for downloading phot ...
, and are thus widely supported. Other cameras are supported by the
gPhoto project, and many computers are equipped with a
memory card reader.
File formats
The Joint Photography Experts Group standard (JPEG) is the most common file format for storing image data. Other file types include Tagged Image File Format (
TIFF
Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processin ...
) and various
Raw image format
A camera raw image file contains unprocessed or minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, a motion picture film scanner, or other image scanner. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and the ...
s.
Many cameras, especially high-end ones, support a raw image format. A raw image is the unprocessed set of pixel data directly from the camera's sensor, often saved in a
proprietary format
A proprietary file format is a file format of a company, organization, or individual that contains data that is ordered and stored according to a particular encoding-scheme, designed by the company or organization to be secret, such that the decod ...
.
Adobe Systems has released the
DNG format, a royalty-free raw image format used by at least 10 camera manufacturers.
Raw files initially had to be processed in specialized image editing programs, but over time many mainstream editing programs, such as Google's
Picasa, have added support for raw images. Rendering to standard images from raw sensor data allows more flexibility in making major adjustments without losing image quality or retaking the picture.
Formats for movies are
AVI
Avi is a given name, usually masculine, often a diminutive of Avram, Avraham, etc. It is sometimes feminine and a diminutive of the Hebrew spelling of Abigail.
People with the given name include:
* Avi (born 1937), Newbery award-winning Americ ...
,
DV, MPEG,
MOV (often containing motion JPEG),
WMV, and ASF (basically the same as WMV). Recent formats include MP4, which is based on the QuickTime format and uses newer compression algorithms to allow longer recording times in the same space.
Other formats that are used in cameras (but not for pictures) are the Design Rule for Camera Format (
DCF), an
ISO specification, used in almost all camera since 1998, which defines an internal file structure and naming. Also used is the Digital Print Order Format (
DPOF), which dictates what order images are to be printed in and how many copies. The DCF 1998 defines a logical file system with
8.3 filenames and makes the usage of either FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 or exFAT mandatory for its physical layer in order to maximize platform interoperability.
Most cameras include
Exif
Exchangeable image file format (officially Exif, according to JEIDA/JEITA/CIPA specifications) is a standard that specifies formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other syste ...
data that provides
metadata about the picture. Exif data may include aperture,
exposure time, focal length, date and time taken. Some are able to
tag the location.
Directory and file structure
In order to guarantee
interoperability
Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader def ...
, DCF specifies the file system for image and sound files to be used on formatted DCF media (like
removable or non-removable memory) as
FAT12,
FAT16,
FAT32
File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on hard disks and other devices. It is often supported for compatibility reasons by ...
, or
exFAT
exFAT (Extensible File Allocation Table) is a file system introduced by Microsoft in 2006 and optimized for flash memory such as USB flash drives and SD cards. exFAT was proprietary until 28 August 2019, when Microsoft published its specificat ...
.
Media with a capacity of more than 2 GB must be formatted using FAT32 or exFAT.
The
filesystem
In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
in a digital camera contains a DCIM (Digital Camera IMages)
directory
Directory may refer to:
* Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files
* Directory (OpenVMS command)
* Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network' ...
, which can contain multiple subdirectories with names such as "123ABCDE" that consist of a unique directory number (in the range 100...999) and five alphanumeric characters, which may be freely chosen and often refer to a camera maker. These directories contain files with names such as "ABCD1234.JPG" that consist of four alphanumeric characters (often "100_", "DSC0", "DSCF", "IMG_", "MOV_", or "P000"), followed by a number. Handling of directories with possibly user-created duplicate numbers may vary among camera firmwares.
DCF 2.0 adds support for DCF optional files recorded in an optional color space (that is,
Adobe RGB rather than
sRGB
sRGB is a standard RGB (red, green, blue) color space that HP and Microsoft created cooperatively in 1996 to use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was subsequently standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission ...
). Such files must be indicated by a leading "_" (as in "_DSC" instead of "100_" or "DSC0").
Thumbnail files
To enable loading many images in miniature view quickly and efficiently, and to retain
meta data, some vendors' firmwares generate accompanying low-resolution
thumbnail
Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search engines and image- ...
files for videos and raw photos. For example, those of Canon cameras end with
.THM
. JPEG can already store a thumbnail image standalone.
Batteries
Digital cameras have become smaller over time, resulting in an ongoing need to develop a
battery small enough to fit in the camera and yet able to power it for a reasonable length of time.
Digital cameras utilize either proprietary or standard consumer batteries. , most cameras use proprietary lithium-ion batteries while some use standard AA batteries or primarily use a proprietary Lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack but have an optional AA battery holder available.
Proprietary
The most common class of battery used in digital cameras is proprietary battery formats. These are built to a manufacturer's custom specifications. Almost all proprietary batteries are lithium-ion. In addition to being available from the
OEM, aftermarket replacement batteries are commonly available for most camera models.
Standard consumer batteries
Digital cameras that utilize off-the-shelf batteries are typically designed to be able to use both single-use
disposable and
rechargeable batteries, but not with both types in use at the same time. The most common off-the-shelf battery size used is
AA. CR2,
CR-V3 batteries, and
AAA batteries
The AAA battery (or triple-A battery) is a standard size of dry cell battery. One or more AAA batteries are commonly used in low-drain portable electronic devices. A zinc–carbon battery in this size is designated by IEC as R03, by ANSI C1 ...
are also used in some cameras. The CR2 and CR-V3 batteries are
lithium based, intended for a single use. Rechargeable
RCR-V3
A CR-V3 battery (sometimes CRV3) is a type of disposable high-capacity 3-Volt battery used in various electronic appliances, including some digital cameras. It has the shape and size of two side-by-side AA batteries. This allows CR-V3 batterie ...
lithium-ion batteries are also available as an alternative to non-rechargeable CR-V3 batteries.
Some
battery grips for DSLRs come with a separate holder to accommodate AA cells as an external power source.
Conversion of film cameras to digital
When digital cameras became common, many photographers asked whether their
film camera
A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie s ...
s could be converted to digital. The answer was not immediately clear, as it differed among models. For the majority of 35 mm film cameras the answer is no, the reworking and cost would be too great, especially as lenses have been evolving as well as cameras. For most a conversion to digital, to give enough space for the electronics and allow a liquid crystal display to preview, would require removing the back of the camera and replacing it with a custom built digital unit.
Many early professional SLR cameras, such as the
Kodak DCS
The Kodak Digital Camera System is a series of digital single-lens reflex cameras and digital camera backs that were released by Kodak in the 1990s and 2000s, and discontinued in 2005. They are all based on existing 35mm film SLRs from Nikon, Cano ...
series, were developed from 35 mm film cameras. The technology of the time, however, meant that rather than being digital "backs" the bodies of these cameras were mounted on large, bulky digital units, often bigger than the camera portion itself. These were factory built cameras, however, not
aftermarket conversions.
A notable exception is the
Nikon E2 and
Nikon E3, using additional optics to convert the
35 mm format to a 2/3 CCD-sensor.
A few 35 mm cameras have had
digital camera backs made by their manufacturer, Leica being a notable example.
Medium format
Medium format has traditionally referred to a film format in photography and the related cameras and equipment that use film. Nowadays, the term applies to film and digital cameras that record images on media larger than the used in 35&nb ...
and
large format
Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than " medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the fram ...
cameras (those using film stock greater than 35 mm), have a low unit production, and typical digital backs for them cost over $10,000. These cameras also tend to be highly modular, with handgrips, film backs, winders, and lenses available separately to fit various needs.
The very large sensor these backs use leads to enormous image sizes. For example, Phase One's P45 39 MP image back creates a single TIFF image of size up to 224.6 MB, and even greater pixel counts are available. Medium format digitals such as this are geared more towards studio and
portrait photography
Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait photograph may be artistic or clinical. Frequentl ...
than their smaller DSLR counterparts; the
ISO speed in particular tends to have a maximum of 400, versus 6400 for some DSLR cameras. (Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and
Nikon D3S have ISO 12800 plus Hi-3 ISO 102400 with the Canon EOS-1Dx's ISO of 204800).
Digital camera backs
In the industrial and high-end professional photography market, some camera systems use modular (removable) image sensors. For example, some medium format SLR cameras, such as the Mamiya 645D series, allow installation of either a digital camera back or a traditional photographic film back.
* Area array
** CCD
** CMOS
* Linear array
** CCD (monochrome)
** 3-strip CCD with color filters
Linear array cameras are also called scan backs.
* Single-shot
* Multi-shot (three-shot, usually)
Most earlier digital camera backs used linear array sensors, moving vertically to
digitize the image. Many of them only capture
grayscale
In digital photography, computer-generated imagery, and colorimetry, a grayscale image is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample representing only an ''amount'' of light; that is, it carries only intensity information. Graysc ...
images. The relatively long exposure times, in the range of seconds or even minutes generally limit scan backs to studio applications, where all aspects of the photographic scene are under the photographer's control.
Some other camera backs use CCD arrays similar to typical cameras. These are called single-shot backs.
Since it is much easier to manufacture a high-quality linear CCD array with only thousands of pixels than a CCD matrix with millions, very high resolution linear CCD camera backs were available much earlier than their CCD matrix counterparts. For example, you could buy an (albeit expensive) camera back with over 7,000 pixel horizontal resolution in the mid-1990s. However, , it is still difficult to buy a comparable CCD matrix camera of the same resolution. Rotating line cameras, with about 10,000 color pixels in its sensor line, are able, , to capture about 120,000 lines during one full 360 degree rotation, thereby creating a single digital image of 1,200 Megapixels.
Most modern digital camera backs use CCD or CMOS matrix sensors. The matrix sensor captures the entire image frame at once, instead of incrementing scanning the frame area through the prolonged exposure. For example,
Phase One produces a 39 million pixel digital camera back with a 49.1 x 36.8 mm CCD in 2008. This CCD array is a little smaller than a frame of
120 film
120 is a film format for still photography introduced by Kodak for their '' Brownie No. 2'' in 1901. It was originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film. 120 film survives to this day as the only ...
and much larger than a
35 mm 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film
* 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock
* 35MM 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format ...
frame (36 x 24 mm). In comparison, consumer digital cameras use arrays ranging from 36 x 24 mm (full frame on high end consumer DSLRs) to 1.28 x 0.96 mm (on camera phones) CMOS sensor.
See also
*
List of digital camera brands
*
Smart camera
*
Video camera
A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos (as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film). Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of othe ...
*
Digital signal processor
*
Vision processing unit
A vision processing unit (VPU) is (as of 2018) an emerging class of microprocessor; it is a specific type of AI accelerator, designed to accelerate machine vision tasks.
Overview
Vision processing units are distinct from video processing un ...
*
Image sensor
An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to make an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of c ...
References
External links
History of the digital camera and digital imaging Digital Camera Museum
{{Authority control
American inventions
Audiovisual introductions in 1975
1975 in the arts
1975 in technology
Computer-related introductions in 1975
20th-century inventions