Digital Cameras

A digital camera is an electronic device used to capture and store photographs electronically instead of using photographic film like conventional cameras. more...

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Modern compact digital cameras are typically multifunctional, with some devices capable of recording sound and/or video as well as photographs. Professional digital cameras are generally dedicated to photography. In the Western market, both types of digital cameras now outsell their 35 mm film counterparts.

Classification

Digital cameras can be classified into several categories:

Video cameras

Professional video cameras such as those used in television and movie production. These typically have multiple image sensors (one per color) to enhance resolution and color gamut. Professional video cameras usually do not have a built-in VCR or microphone.; Camcorders used by amateurs. They generally include a microphone to record sound, and feature a small liquid crystal display to watch the video during taping and playback.; Webcams are digital cameras attached to computers, used for video conferencing or other purposes. Webcams can capture full-motion video as well, and some models include microphones or zoom ability.;

In addition, many Live-Preview Digital cameras have a "movie" mode, in which images are continuously acquired at a frame rate sufficient for video.

Live-Preview Digital cameras

A Live-Preview Digital camera (LPD) is a camera that uses a conventionally generated digital image (live-preview) on an electronic screen as its principal means of framing and previewing before taking the photograph. With the exception of very few live-preview dSLRs, any digital camera that has live-preview falls into this category.

Many modern LPDs have a movie mode, and a growing number of camcorders can take still photographs. However, even a low-end LPD can take far better still pictures than a mid-range video camera, and mid-range LPDs have much lower video quality than low-end Video cameras. In addition, some newer camcorders record video directly to flash memory and transfer over USB and FireWire. Among digital LPDs, most have a rear liquid crystal display for reviewing photographs. They are rated in megapixels; that is, the product of their maximum resolution dimensions in millions. The actual transfers to a host computer are commonly carried out using the USB mass storage device class (so that the camera appears as a drive) or using the Picture Transfer Protocol and its derivatives, in addition firewire is becoming more popular and supported among more digital cameras. All use either a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor or novel sensors based upon either of those two principles, i.e. chips comprised of a grid of phototransistors to sense the light intensities across the plane of focus of the camera lens. CMOS sensors are differentiated from CCDs proper in that it uses less power and a different kind of light sensing material, however the differences are highly technical and many manufacturers still consider the CMOS chip a charged coupled device. For our purposes, a chip sensor is a CCD.

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