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Cameras

    Cameras Editor's Picks

    • Other Uses for Cameras

      Capturing a moment in time is the essential function of a camera, but there are many other uses for cameras as well, especially digital cameras. For example, have you ever thought of using the LCD screen on your digital camera as a flashlight? How about letting your camera act like binoculars by zooming in on a far-away object? Here... more »

    • How to Identify Vintage Cameras

      Collecting vintage cameras has become more popular in recent years, especially as digital cameras have replaced film cameras in most homes as the first choice for family and holiday snapshots. Collectors should follow a few simple guidelines when considering vintage cameras, whether they are collecting for fun or hoping to find... more »

    • How to Set Up an Internet Camera

      Setting up and using an Internet camera is easy. With a basic USB web camera and the proper software, broadcasting via the Internet is a good way to add a face to voice and text communication. Internet cameras are generally used in conjunction with popular instant messaging and voice chat systems like Yahoo Chat, ICQ, AOL Messenger,... more »

    • About Spy Cameras

      Video cameras may make people act nervous or different. If you want to capture true moments from the babysitter, for surveillance, or just general interest, then you should consider getting a spy camera. There are stable spy cameras that can be wired into homes, but there are also spy cameras for on the go adventures. You can catch... more »

    • How Do Cameras Work?

      The parts of the simplest possible camera are a dark box with a small hole or window and some photographic medium on the inside back wall for recording the image. For everyday cameras, the dark box is replaced by a camera body. The window--technically called the aperture--is covered with a ground-glass lens for focusing the light that... more »

    Cameras Quick Guides

    • Choose a New Camera

      Looking for a new camera? Whether you're a pro, hobbyist or snap 'n shoot shutterbug, you're in...

    • Camera Lens Care and Usage

      Take that prize-winning picture with high-quality lenses. Avoid disrupting a shot by shooting at...

    • Video Cameras for Experts

      Where would the dinner-and-a-movie be without video cameras? Whether you’re taping your child’s...

    • Knowing Your SLR Camera

      Learn all about getting the perfect shot with SLR cameras. These guides focus on SLR cameras and...

    Cameras Articles

    Wikipedia

    Camera

    Cameras from Large to Small, Film to Digital
    A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies. The term comes from the camera obscura (Latin for "dark chamber"), an early mechanism of projecting images where an entire room functioned as a real-time imaging system; the modern camera evolved from the camera obscura.

    Cameras may work with the light of the visible spectrum or with other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. A camera generally consists of an enclosed hollow with an opening (aperture) at one end for light to enter, and a recording or viewing surface for capturing the light at the other end. A majority of cameras have a lens positioned in front of the cameras opening to gather the incoming light and focus all or part of the image on the recording surface. The diameter of the aperture is often controlled by a diaphragm mechanism, but some cameras have a fixed-size aperture.

    A typical still camera takes one photo each time the user presses the shutter button.
    A typical movie camera continuously takes 24 film frames per second as long as the user holds down the shutter button.

    History

    The forerunner to the camera was the camera obscura. The camera obscura is an instrument consisting of a darkened chamber or box, into which light is admitted through a convex lens, forming an image of external objects on a surface of paper or glass, etc., placed at the focus of the lens.Oxford English Dictionary. The camera obscura was described by the Arabic scientist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) in his Book of Optics (1015–1021)."Alhazen">Nicholas J. Wade, Stanley Finger (2001), "The eye as an optical instrument: from camera obscura to Helmholtzs perspective", Perception 30 (10), p. 1157 – 1177. Alhazens work appeared in Latin translation as De Aspectibus ("Concerning vision") in about 1200, and the book influenced Roger Bacons reflections on producing images using pin read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera

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