The Inner Workings of Digital Cameras

If you use a digital camera, it can help to have a little deeper understanding how these modern wonders work. Briefly, digital cameras have a series of lenses that focus light onto a sensor instead of film. The sensor electronically records the image, and transfers it to the "brains" of the camera. Here it is organized and then converted into binary data, so it can be stored in memory or on removable memory units for later reading by a computer or printer.When it comes to the sensor, most digital cameras use a charge-coupled device (CCD), while other cameras use a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) instead. Both sensors convert light into electrical charges, which are then read by the electronics in the camera and transferred to the relevant storage media.As we all learned in grade school, there are three primary colors. Digital cameras use filters to divide the light into those three colors during the conversion process. Good quality cameras have three separate sensors for filtering, with each sensor matching one strand of light.The amount of light reaching the sensor is also controlled carefully. Cameras do this in two ways: aperture size, and shutter speed. Most of today's cameras have automated aperture settings, although some models allow manual control, which enthusiasts and professionals prefer. Shutter speed is generally set electronically.Lenses for digital cameras come in four varieties: digital-zoom lenses; fixed-zoom lenses; replaceable lens systems; and fixed-focus. Fixed lenses, both zoom and fixed focus, tend to be found in the cheaper cameras. Optical zoom lenses can have both wide angle and telephoto options. Digital zoom lenses don't actually zoom a piece of glass, but rather take pixels from the central part of the image, and enlarge them. This appears to be a zoom, but if you look closely, you will notice that they are more grainy or fuzzy images than you get without invoking the zoom option.Most digital cameras come with an LCD screen to preview images or to look at them after capture. Most LCD screens are rather small, because the size of the cameras overall is small, too. For better viewing, you must transfer the image to a computer. For quality of image, the biggest factor is the resolution, which is measured in megapixels. The higher the resolution, generally the better the image quality.For printing photos, resolution of the original image is also key. A low quality camera such as those found in many cell phones will create images that are really only useful for emailing or for web pages. A 2-megapixel camera produces images that can be blown up to about 4x6 inches. Four megapixels will create nice 16x20 inch images, but with falling prices on most digital cameras, if you enjoy photography and enlarging photos, don't settle for less than six megapixels.Several years ago, digital cameras stored images onto fixed memory locations inside the camera. Users needed a cable to hook up to a computer in order to transfer images. Today's cameras all use removable, reusable memory media, and are therefore much more flexible and convenient. Larger amounts of storage are easy to purchase, so one can also take higher resolution pictures without fear of running out of memory. Various systems for storage include SmartMedia cards, memory sticks, and CompactFlash cards. Other cameras use microdrives, like little hard drives, or DVDs. Whichever method your camera uses, the convenience and freedom that digital photography allows will turn you into a shutterbug in short order!
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