20 Sep 08 Digital Camera Basics-images
Author: Brian Lee
In the past twenty years, most of the major technological breakthroughs in consumer electronics have been built around the same basic process: converting conventional analog information (represented by a fluctuating wave) into digital information (binary information represented by ones and zeros, or bits). This fundamental shift in technology has changed how we handle visual and audio information — it completely redefined what is possible.
The digital camera is one of the most notable examples of this shift because it is so truly different from its predecessor. Conventional film cameras depend entirely on chemical and mechanical processes — you don’t need any electricity whatsoever to operate them, other than for a flash. On the other hand, all digital cameras have a built-in computer, and all of them record images electronically.
The new approach has been enormously successful. Since film usually provides better picture quality, digital cameras have not completely replaced conventional cameras. But, as digital imaging technology has improved, and prices dramatically decreased, digital cameras have rapidly become more popular.
In this article, we’ll find out exactly what’s going on inside these amazing digital-age devices.
Understanding the Basics
Let’s say you want to take a picture and e-mail it to a friend. To do this, you need the image to be represented in the language that computers recognize — bits and bytes, or binary information. Essentially, a digital image is just a long string of 1s and 0s that represent all the tiny colored dots — or pixels — that collectively make up the image. If you want to get a picture into this form, you have two options:
1) You can take a photograph using a conventional film camera, take the film to a developing lab that processes the film chemically, prints it onto photographic paper, and then place the picture on a digital scanner to sample the print (record the pattern of light as a series of pixel values).
2) You can directly sample the original light that bounces off your subject, immediately breaking that light pattern down into a series of pixel values — in other words, you can use a digital camera.
At its most basic level, this is all there is to a digital camera. Just like a conventional film camera, it has a series of lenses that focus light to create an image of a scene. But instead of focusing this light onto a piece of film, it focuses it onto a semiconductor device that records light electronically. A computer then breaks this electronic information down into digital data. All the fun and interesting features of digital cameras come as a direct result of this process.
Instead of film, a digital camera has a sensor that converts light into electrical charges.
The image sensor employed by most digital cameras is a charge coupled device (CCD). Some cameras use complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology instead. Both CCD and CMOS image sensors convert light into electrons. Without getting too technical, a simplified way to think about these sensors is to think of a 2-dimentional array of thousands or millions of tiny solar cells.
Once the sensor converts the light into electrons, it reads the value (accumulated charge) of each cell in the image. This is where the differences between the two main sensor types become a factor:
A CCD transports the charge across the chip and reads it at one corner of the array. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) then turns each pixel’s value into a digital value by measuring the amount of charge at each photosite and converting that measurement to binary form. CCD sensors create high-quality, low-noise images. CCD sensors have been mass produced for a longer period of time, so they are more mature. They tend to have higher quality pixels, and more of them.
CMOS devices use several transistors at each pixel to amplify and move the charge using ordinary wires. The CMOS signal is digital, so it needs no ADC. Because each pixel on a CMOS sensor has several transistors located next to it, the light sensitivity of a CMOS chip is lower (many of the photons hit the transistors instead of the photodiode.) CMOS sensors traditionally consume little power. CCDs, on the other hand, use a process that consumes lots of power.
The amount of detail that the camera can capture is called the resolution, and it is measured in pixels. The more pixels a camera has, the more detail it can capture and the larger pictures can be without becoming blurry or “grainy.” High-end consumer cameras can capture over 12 million pixels. Some professional cameras support over 16 million pixels, or 20 million pixels for large-format cameras. For comparison, Hewlett Packard estimates that the quality of 35mm film is about 20 million pixels.
Exposure and Focus
Just as with film, a digital camera has to control the amount of light that reaches the sensor. The two components it uses to do this, the aperture and shutter speed, are also present on conventional cameras.
Aperture: The size of the opening in the camera. The aperture is automatic in most digital cameras, but some allow manual adjustment to give professionals and hobbyists more control over the final image.
Shutter speed: The amount of time that light can pass through the aperture. Unlike film, the light sensor in a digital camera can be reset electronically, so digital cameras have a digital shutter rather than a mechanical shutter.
These two aspects work together to capture the amount of light needed to make a good image. In photographic terms, they set the exposure of the sensor.
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20 Sep 08 Digital Camera: the Future of Cameras
Author: Nicholas Tan
Basically a digital camera is a deice use to capture pictures without the use of films. Unlike the conventional camera, the digital camera does not rely on mechanical and chemical processes. It has a built in computer and records the images it captures in an electronic form. Having and operating one does not even require the use of electricity.
Since the images that a digital camera captures is in electronic form, it is a language recognized by computers. This language is called pixels, tiny colored dots represented by ones and zeros that make up the picture that you just took. Just like any conventional cameras, a digital camera is furnished with a series of lenses that focus the light and creates the image that you want to capture. The difference here is then; a conventional camera focuses its light on a film while a digital camera focuses the light into a semiconductor device that electronically records the light. Remember the built in computer, it comes in here and breaks this information to digital data resulting to all the features of the digital camera.
Another feature of the digital camera is that it has a sensor that converts light into electrical charges. A charge coupled device or CCD is an image sensor that is found in a digital camera. While other low-end digital camera use complementary metal oxide semiconductor or CMOS as an image device, it can still become better and more famous in the future but most engineers are do not believe that it can replace the CCD for higher-end digital cameras.
A collection of tiny diodes, the CCD gathers electrons when they are struck by photons or the light particles. Each diode or photosite is sensitive to light, meaning that the brighter the light, the number of the electrons gathering will be larger
The price of a digital camera nowadays have been depreciating, one of the main reasons of this is because of the introduction of CMOS image sensors, this is because CMOS sensors are less expensive and are easier to manufacture than CCD sensors. A CCD and CMOS sensor works the same way at first, by converting the light electrical charges into photosites. Simply putting it, is to think that a digital camera works in such a way as thinking that the millions of tiny solar cells, each of which forms a part of the whole image. Both CCD and CMOS do this task using different methods.
When shopping for the best digital camera, take note of these key features.
Image quality. Check the resolution of the camera. The higher the resolution, the more thou will be able to enlarge your picture without the grainy or the out-of-focus effect that we all want to avoid.
Lens. Choose a digital camera with better digital zoom. The digital zoom of the camera will enable you take the pixels from the image sensor and incorporate them to make an image.
Power. Always opt for rechargeable batteries, they can always come in handy, plus you don’t waste as much money on the disposable ones.
Options. So you can brag to your friends how good a photographer or artist you are. Or choose the one that gives options that best cater to your lifestyle, so you won’t ever whine how you never get the right pictures.
Memory. If you’re a photo freak, be sure that you have enough memory in your camera to take all the wacky, freaky, funny and just about any photo you can. Think 512MB if you’re a photo junkie and takes pictures of just about anything.
Computer Interface. Always make sure that it is compatible with your PC, laptop, palmtop or whatever your local picture printer software is, you don’t want to go running around the whole state or the country looking for a computer that’s compatible with your digital camera, wont you?!
Physical. If you are going to be bringing it everywhere, choose a handy and portable digital camera. This way, it won’t always feel as heavy and bulky as those cameras that you see professional photographers are always dragging on their neck. Don’t they ever get tired of that?!
These are just the basic things you have to look for in a digital camera when you buy one. A digital camera is so great that it is quickly replacing all conventional cameras in the market, with all its technology and portability, truly the digital camera is the future of cameras.
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19 Sep 08 Why Buy Digital Cameras?
Author: Roberto Sedycias
Technology development started at a very high pace during the 20th Century. Like many other areas of development, photography also saw major developments in its field. Photographic camera technology has seen a constant improvement from way back in 1913 when a 35 mm still camera was produced till 1985 when digital technology was first introduced in photography by Pixar.
Basically digital camera is an electronic gadget which captures and stores photographs in a digital format without using any processing films. The first true digital camera was launched in 1988 by Fuji Company .This camera used a memory card for storage purposes. The latest models of Digital Cameras are also able to record sound and video. These digital cameras store pictures on a small device called CCD (Charge Coupled Device). From Digital cameras the images can be transferred to computer and the images can be edited with the help of software like Adobe Photoshop.
Advantages of digital cameras
Convenience of use: The foremost advantage of using the digital camera is that you don`t need to worry about buying films and changing the rolls. You can click as many pictures you want, transfer them to computer, have a close look at them and get only the good ones printed after editing them thoroughly.
Edit options: The Digital cameras allow you to edit the photographs in the easiest way with the help of software. The color, brightness and contrast of the photo can be adjusted and the image can be cropped and resized as required. This helps to optimize the resolution of the photographs.
Economical: Digital cameras are economical in the sense that they do away with the cost of films and the cost of processing. When pictures are taken in bulk quantity the cost of films saved works out to a considerable amount.
Flexibility: You can view the photo you have just clicked on the LCD display of the Digital Camera and if you don`t like it you can retake the same.
Disadvantages of digital cameras
Quality of output: For professional reproduction purposes the conventional film camera is still the best as digital cameras cannot match them in resolution and depth quality.
Initial Cost: The initial investment cost for digital camera is higher than the photo film camera. The cost of the camera for home use runs from around US$ 150 to $1000 whereas the professional models cost may go as high as US$20000.
Slower Speed: Digital cameras take some time for storing the images which is unsuitable for action photography in which you need very fast clicks.
Important features
The digital camera quality largely depends upon its optic features, color depth, resolution etc. While shopping for a digital camera one should take care of following.
High Resolution: Resolution of a digital camera depends upon its capacity to store the dots or pixels. The more pixels it can store the higher will be the resolution. Cameras with a capacity of 5 mega pixels or more are ideal for home photography while professional photographers may look for a capacity of more than 7 mega pixels.
Capacity: The capacity of the digital camera to store pictures is also very important. The cameras have a built in memory capacity and additional memory card slot to store pictures. The cost of the memory cards is high but nevertheless they are very important to serve the purposes of storage.
Bit Depth: This relates to the color capability or the capacity of a digital camera to reproduce colors. Good cameras are capable of handling 24 bit color which fulfills the range of the human eye.
Optics and zoom features: A good camera must have optical zoom lenses with automatic flashes in order to produce better images.
Display: A good LCD display is important for a digital camera as it allows the user to flip through the images he has taken.
The digital camera is certainly becoming more and more popular in the modern era and is set to replace the conventional ones for all general purposes.
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