Optical Viewfinder on a Digital Compact Camera On a digital compact camera the viewfinder represents a simple optical system that zooms at the same time as the main lens and has an optical path that runs parallel to the camera’s main lens. Being so small, viewfinders have a problem represented by framing inaccuracy. Being positioned [...]
Archive for the ‘Camera System’ Category
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Storage Card
November 15th, 2010 
Andrei For digital cameras, storage card is the same thing that film is for conventional cameras. They are removable devices that hold the image taken with the camera. Storage cards are evolving in the same direction as digital cameras: larger capacities (several GB) and faster write speeds to accommodate higher resolution images and shooting in RAW [...]
Sensor Sizes
November 11th, 2010 Andrei If we compare a typical sensor size to a 35 mm film, we realize that the sensor size of digital SLRs is typically 40% to 100% of the surface of the 35 mm film. Although they have similar number of pixels, digital cameras have smaller sensors. As a result, the pixels are smaller and the [...]
Sensors linearity
November 8th, 2010 Andrei Sensors are linear devices. If you double the amount of light, the sensor output will double, as long as the pixels are not full. If a pixel reaches full capacity, the output will be constant or clipped. Human vision is non-linear. If we double the light, the effect will be larger in low light conditions [...]
Sensors
November 4th, 2010 Andrei Inside our eyes there are cone-shaped cells, which are sensitive to some colors, called “primary colors”: red, green and blue. The other colors that we perceive are just combinations of these primary colors. In photography, the red, green and blue corespondents of light expose the corresponding chemical layers of color film. The Foveon sensors work [...]
Pixel Quality
November 1st, 2010 Andrei In digital photography, when we hear the expression “more megapixels” we tend to believe that “more is better”. But in this case “more” doesn’t necessary mean “better”. The photography quality depends on a multitude of factors, the number of pixels being just one of them. Each pixel value has a quality that can be described [...]
Pixels
October 28th, 2010 Andrei To understand the term of digital sensors we have to imagine an array of buckets collecting rain water. Digital sensors work the same way buy they consist of an array of pixels collecting photons, the minute energy packets of which light consists. The light sensitive photodiode converts the number of photons collected in each pixel [...]
Micro lenses
October 25th, 2010 Andrei Microlensses are usually placed on top of the color filter array on certain sensors of digital cameras, their principal role being to overcome the limitation of a low fill factor. Microlenses are also used in order to funnel the photons of a larger area into a smaller area of light sensitive photodiode. Microlenses are small [...]
Manual focus
October 21st, 2010 Andrei There are two ways of focusing: the automatic one (built in your camera) and the manual one (by hands). When you use manual focus the automatic focus is disabled. Usually, manual focus is used when you have to deal with low light or macro/special effects while taking a picture. With some digital cameras, manually focus [...]
LCD
October 18th, 2010 Andrei The LCD is used as a viewfinder by digital compact cameras. To be able to use it you need to capture a live video feed of the scene, which is provided by the LCD. The LCD’s normally measure between 1.5″ and 2.5″ diagonally, with typical resolutions between 120,000 and 240,000 pixels. But there are LCD’s [...]
