CAMERAS

INTRODUCTION TO CAMERAS
The camera is a lightproof box fitted with a lens though which the image of an
object is recorded on a material sensitive to light. The camera is analogous to a physical
camera in the real world. It is an object that has a position from which a scene can be
viewed and rendered. It can also be defined as an electronic device using an optical
system and a light-sensitive pickup tube or chip to convert visual signals into electrical
impulses. It consists of a lens system that focuses an image on a photosensitive mosaic
that is scanned by an electron beam

The camera usually consists of a lightproof box with a lens at one end and light-
sensitive film at the other. The name is derived from camera obscura, Latin for "dark
chamber", an early mechanism for projecting images in which an entire room functioned
much as the internal workings of a modern photographic camera, except there was no
way at this time to record the image short of manually tracing it.

The camera usually consists of a light-tight box, a film holder, a shutter to admit a
measured quantity of light and a lens to focus the image.

WORKING OF CAMERA

A camera is made of three basic elements: an optical element (the lens), a

chemical element (the film) and a mechanical element (the camera body itself). These
elements are to be calibrated in such a way that they record a crisp, recognizable image.

Let us consider a manual single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera. This is a camera

where the photographer sees exactly the same image that is exposed to the film and can
adjust everything by turning dials and clicking buttons. Since it doesn't need any
electricity to take a picture, a manual SLR camera provides an excellent illustration of the
fundamental processes of photography.

The optical component of the camera is the lens. At its simplest, a lens is just a
curved piece of glass or plastic. It takes the beams of light bouncing off of an object and
redirect them so they come together to form a real image -- an image that looks just like
the scene in front of the lens. As light travels from one medium to another, it changes
speed. Light travels more quickly through air than it does through glass, so a lens slows it
down. When light waves enter a piece of glass at an angle, one part of the wave will
reach the glass before another and so will start slowing down first.

As light enters the glass at an angle, it bends in one direction. It bends again when
it exits the glass because parts of the light wave enter the air and speed up before other
parts of the wave. In a standard converging, or convex lens, one or both sides of the glass
curves out. This means rays of light passing through will bend toward the center of the
lens on entry. In a double convex lens, such as a magnifying glass, the light will bend
when it exits as well as when it enters.

This effectively reverses the path of light from an object. A light source -- say a
candle -- emits light in all directions. The rays of light all start at the same point -- the
candle's flame -- and then are constantly diverging. A converging lens takes those rays
and redirects them so they are all converging back to one point. At the point where the
rays converge, you get a real image of the candle.

Inverted image of the object

object

FIG 1: FORMATION OF IMAGE

PINHOLE CAMERA

A pinhole camera is the simplest camera possible. It consists of a light-proof box,

a film and a pinhole. The pinhole is simply an extremely small hole made with the tip of
a pin.

A pinhole camera is a camera without a conventional glass lens. An extremely

small hole in a very thin material can focus light by confining all rays from a scene
through a single point. In order to produce a reasonably clear image, the aperture has to
be about a hundred times smaller than the distance to the screen, or less. The shutter of a
pinhole camera usually consists of a hand operated flap of some light-proof material to
cover and uncover the pinhole. Pinhole cameras require much longer exposure times than
conventional cameras because of the small aperture; typical exposure times can range
from 5 seconds to hours or days.

The image may be projected on a translucent screen for real-time viewing or can
expose film or a charge coupled device (CCD). Pinhole cameras with CCDs are used for
surveillance work because of their small size.

The pinhole camera model can only be used as a first order approximation of the
mapping from a 3D scene to a 2D image. The quality of the image decreases from the
center of the image to the edges as lens distortion effects increases.
FIG 2: PIN HOLE CAMERA
 SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS
Surveillance cameras are used for the safety and security of homes and
businesses. Surveillance cameras are required for the simple purpose that we can watch
everything that is going on. The following are the cameras that are typically used for
surveillance.

Some surveillance cameras are hidden cameras, and some are not. Surveillance
cameras generally imply two types of activity:

1. a fixed camera in a somewhat public place (a street corner, a park, the office,
an ATM, a parking lot) to keep a record of all events which take place in front of it,
especially those of a possibly criminal nature (and to discourage such acts by their visible
presence). Such a camera is generally always on, and has to be visible in order to be a
deterrent. Nevertheless, by their very ubiquity, it is possible that those filmed by them
aren't always aware of their presence.

2. as surveillance has a meaning apart from cameras which continues to have

meaning when they are in use - to follow someone without their knowing they are being
followed. This is one form of surveillance camera - the operative on the trail of an
individual - perhaps to document the supposed result by filming it.

DUMMY SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS

Dummy surveillance cameras are basically the non-working cameras which are
used to fake the real ones, so that they give the impression that they are looking real.
They have proved to provide excellent crime prevention. Since they look like real ones,
the criminals can easily get confused. One important precaution is that while buying, we
need to ensure that they look like real ones.

FIG 3: DUMMY CAMERA

They come with blinking L.E.D. Blinking Red Light (LED) which is battery operated so
that the time and effort of having to run AC power to the Dummy Camera is saved. The
fake security cameras are provided with a wall mounting bracket and a fake power cord.
Simply mount on the wall or ceiling and feel secure. This dummy camera is not water
proof. We need to mount it in a protected location indoors.

TYPES OF CAMERAS
Cameras can take on different roles or functions. Some of the major types are:

CANDID CAMERAS: The control of action in front of a hidden camera. The "purest"
examples of hidden camera occur when the action is not controlled or set up in any way
by the person who has knowledge of the camera. This places "candid camera" stunts on a
lower rung, in that behavior being recorded is usually manipulated.

STING CAMERAS: Documenting action that would supposedly happen anyway, or that
has already happened without a camera being there. The hidden cameras of stings have
become popular on television and in law enforcement, and sometimes in both at once.

CATEGORISING HIDDEN CAMERAS

We can most usefully classify hidden cameras according to their usage, rather
than the specific type of technology involved. A few of the more popular types are
mentioned here:

Nanny cams: A low-grade form of sting operation. It's another way parents film their
kids, so this may in part account for their popularity

Spy Cams: Many situations exist where people want to record "secret" activities - secret
because they may be unlawful, of prurient interest, involving people they have an interest
in, or sometimes for the simple reason that it's possible to do it. This can vary from nosy
neighbors and private detectives to stalkers and deranged people. A hidden camera can be
a kind of weapon, with all that implies.

Police Car and Traffic Cameras: Smiting out by recording drunk driver arrests for use
in court, the law enforcement community has come to use video and hidden cameras for
many reasons. One extensive use is in the dashboard-mounted camera recording traffic
stops, another is the use of cameras at street comers to automatically send tickets to
speeders. Like radar, police always adopt new technologies.

Public Cameras: Often with the motive of catching lawbreakers, cameras as we know,
are turning up everywhere. They can be used in a grocery store or a department store, a
mall or a parking lot, a cinema etc.
 CAMCORDERS

A camcorder is a portable electronic device for recording video images and audio
onto an internal storage device. The camcorder contains both a video camera and
(traditionally) a videocassette recorder in one unit, hence its portmanteau name. This
compares to previous technology where they would be separate.

The earliest camcorders, developed by companies such as JVC, Sony, and Kodak,
used analog videotape, but since the mid-1990s (and even before that in professional
markets), camcorders recording digital video have become the norm.

Camcorders contain 3 major components: lens, imager, and recorder. The lens
gathers and focuses light on the imager. The imager (usually a CCD or CMOS sensor on
modern camcorders; earlier examples often used vidicon tubes) converts incident light
into an electrical (video) signal. Finally, the recorder encodes the video signal into a
storable form. More commonly, the optics and imager are referred to as the camera
section.

The lens is the first component in the camera-section's "light-path". The

camcorder's optics generally have one or more of the following adjustments: aperture (to
control the amount of light), zoom (to control the field-of-view), and shutter speed (to
capture continuous motion.) In consumer units, these adjustments are automatically
controlled by the camcorder's electronics, generally to maintain constant exposure onto
the imager. Professional units offer direct user control of all major optical functions
(aperture, shutter-speed, focus, etc.)

The imager section is the eye of the camcorder, housing a photosensitive

device(s). The imager converts light into an electronic video-signal through an elaborate
electronic process. The camera lens projects an image onto the imager surface, exposing
the photosensitive array to light. The light exposure is converted into electrical charge. At
the end of the timed exposure, the imager converts the accumulated charge into a
continuous analog voltage at the imager's output terminals. After scan-out is complete,
the photosites are reset to start the exposure-process for the next video frame. In modern
(digital) camcorders, an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter digitizes the imager (analog)
waveform output into a discrete digital-video signal.

The third section, the recorder, is responsible for writing the video-signal onto a
recording medium (such as magnetic videotape.) The record function involves many
signal-processing steps, and historically, the recording-process introduced some
distortion and noise into the stored video, such that playback of the stored-signal may not
retain the same characteristics/detail as the live video feed.

All camcorders also need to have a recorder-controlling section which allows the
user to control the camcorder, switch the recorder into playback mode for reviewing the
recorded footage and an image control section which controls exposure, focus and white-
balance.

Camcorders are often classified by their storage device: VHS, Betamax, Video8
are examples of older, videotape-based camcorders which record video in analog form.
Newer camcorders include Digital8, miniDV, DVD, Hard drive and solid-state (flash)
semiconductor memory, which all record video in digital form

ANALOG CAMCORDERS

Lo-Band: Approximately 3 megahertz bandwidth (250 lines EIA resolution

Betamax (1975): Only used on very old Sony and Sanyo camcorders and
portables; obsolete by the mid/late-80s in the consumer market.
VHS (1976): Compatible with standard VCRs, though VHS camcorders are no
longer made. Obsolete.
VHS-C (1982): Originally designed for portable VCRs, this standard was later
adapted for use in compact consumer camcorders; identical in quality to VHS;
plays in standard home VCRs. Still available in the low-end consumer market
(JVC model GR-AXM18 is VHS-C; see page 19 of the owner's manual}.
Video8 (1985): Small-format tape developed by Sony to combat VHS-C's
compact palm-sized design; equivalent to VHS or Betamax in quality, but not
compatible. Obsolete.

Hi-Band: Approximately 5 megahertz bandwidth (420 lines EIA resolution or ~550x480

edge-to-edge)

S-VHS (1987): Largely used in high-end consumer and professional equipment;

rare among mainstream consumer equipment, and obsolete by digital gear like
DigiBetacam and DV.
S-VHS-C (1987): An upgrade to provide near-laserdisc quality. Now limited to
the low-end consumer market (example: JVC SXM38).
Hi8 (1988): Enhanced-quality Video8; roughly equivalent to Super VHS in
quality, but not compatible. Now limited to low-end consumer market
(example: Sony TRV138)
DIGITAL CAMCORDERS

Digital Tapeless: Low-end digital tapeless systems often use an MPEG-4 codec and flash
memory; high-end versions, on the other hand, store video data to hard disk or optical
disc.

H.264 codec based AVCHD format, which records MPEG-4 AVC

(H.264) compressed video to various kinds of tape less media (recordable
optical discs, flash memory, hard disks, etc).

DV codec based:

MiniDV (1994) and several derivatives, including DVCPRO from

Panasonic and DVCAM from Sony. DV records the highest quality
pictures (generally agreed to be at or near broadcast-quality) on DV tapes
that are easily transferable via Firewire or USB to personal computers.
Though designed as a consumer standard, there is extensive use of
MiniDV in low-budget film and television production.
Digital8 (1999), that uses Hi8 tapes (Sony is the only company currently
producing D8 camcorders, though Hitachi used to). Some models of
Digital 8 cameras have the ability to read older Hi8 analog format tapes.
The format's technical specifications are of the same quality as MiniDV
(both use the same DV codec), and although no professional-level Digital8
equipment exists, D8 has been used to make TV and movie productions
(example: Hall of Mirrors).

MPEG-2 codec based:

MICROMV: Uses a matchbox-sized cassette. Sony was the only

electronics manufacturer for this format, and editing software was
proprietary to Sony and only available on Microsoft Windows; however,
open source programmers did manage to create capture software for
Linux[2]. The hardware is no longer in production, though tapes are still
available through Sony.
DVD (with the biggest market increases): Uses either Mini DVD-R or
DVD-RAM. This is a multi-manufacturer standard that uses 8 cm DVD
discs for 30 minutes of video. DVD-R can be played on consumer DVD
players but cannot be added to or recorded over once finalized for
viewing. DVD-RAM can be added to and/or recorded over, but cannot be
played on many consumer DVD players, and costs a lot more than other
types of DVD recordable media. The DVD-RW is another option allowing
the user to re-record, but only records sequentially and must be finalized
for viewing. The discs do cost more than the DVD-R format, which only
records once. DVD discs are also very vulnerable to scratches. DVD
camcorders are generally not designed to connect to computers for editing
 purposes, though some high-end DVD units do record surround sound, a
feature not standard with DV equipment.

HDV: Records up to an hour of HDTV MPEG-2 signal roughly equal to

broadcast quality HD on a standard MiniDV cassette.
 DIGITAL CAMERAS
A digital camera is an electronic device used to capture and store photographs
digitally, instead of using photographic film like conventional cameras, or recording
images in an analog format to magnetic tape like many video cameras. Modern compact
digital cameras are typically multifunctional, with some devices capable of recording
sound and/or video as well as photographs.

Classification
Digital cameras can be classified into several categories:

Video cameras

Video cameras are classified as devices whose main purpose is to record moving images.

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

The term digital still camera (DSC) most commonly refers to the class of live-
preview digital cameras, cameras that use an electronic screen as the principal means of
framing and previewing before taking the photograph. All use either a charge-coupled
device (CCD) or a CMOS image sensor to sense the light intensities across the focal
plane.
 Many modern live-preview cameras have a movie mode, and a growing number
of camcorders can take still photographs. However, even a low-end live-preview camera
can take better still pictures than a mid-range video camera, and mid-range live-preview
cameras have much lower video quality than low-end video cameras; that is, products are
not generally optimized for both still and video photography, due to their different
requirements.

Among live-preview cameras, most have a rear liquid crystal display for both
preview and reviewing photographs. Transfers to a 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 (PTP) and its derivatives; in addition, Firewire is sometimes
supported.

The live-preview cameras are typically divided into compact (and subcompact)
and bridge cameras.

Compact digital cameras

Also called digicams, this encompasses most digital cameras. They are
characterized by great ease in operation and easy focusing; this design allows for limited
motion picture capability. They tend to have significantly smaller zooms than bridge and
DSLR cameras. They have an extended depth of field. This allows objects at a larger
range of depths to be in focus, which accounts for much of their ease of use. They excel
in landscape photography and casual use. They typically save pictures in only the JPEG
file format. All but the cheapest models have a built-in flash, although its guide number
tends to be very low, perhaps just 6 or 8.
Bridge cameras
Bridge or SLR-like cameras form a general group of higher-end live-preview
cameras that physically resemble DSLRs and share with these some advanced features,
but share with compacts the live-preview design and small sensor sizes.

Bridge cameras tend to have superzoom lenses, which compromises in varying

degrees, depending on the quality of the zoom lens a "do it all" ability with barrel
distortion . These cameras are sometimes marketed as and confused with digital SLR
cameras since the bodies resemble each other. The distinguishing characteristics are that
bridge cameras lack the mirror and reflex system of DSLRs, have so far been always
produced with only one single sealed (non-interchangeable) lens (but accessory wide
angle or telephoto converters can be attached to the front of the sealed lens), can usually
take movies, record audio and the scene composition is done with either the liquid crystal
display or the electronic viewfinder (EVF). The overall performance tends to be slower
than a true digital SLR, but they are capable of very good image quality while being more
compact and lighter than DSLRs. The high-end models of this type have comparable
resolutions to low and mid-range DSLRs. Many of these cameras can save in JPEG or
RAW format. The majority have a built-in flash, often a unit which flips up over the lens.
The guide number tends to be between 11 and 15.

Digital single lens reflex cameras

Digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) are digital cameras based on film
single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs), both types are characterized by the existence of a
mirror and reflex system. See the main article on DSLRs for a detailed treatment of this
category.

Digital rangefinders

A rangefinder is a focusing mechanism once widely used on film cameras, but

much less common in digital cameras. The term rangefinder alone is often used to mean
a rangefinder camera, that is, a camera equipped with a rangefinder.

For information on digital rangefinders specifically, check the digital rangefinder

section in the main article linked above.
Professional modular digital camera systems

This category includes very high end professional equipment that can be
assembled from modular components (winders, grips, lenses, etc.) to suit particular
purposes. Common makes include Hasselblad and Mamiya. They were developed for
medium or large format film sizes, as these captured greater detail and could be enlarged
more than 35mm.

Typically these cameras are used in studios for commercial production; being
bulky and awkward to carry they are rarely used in action or nature photography. They
can often be converted into either film or digital use by changing out the back part of the
unit, hence the use of terms such as a "digital back" or "film back." These cameras are
very expensive (up to $40,000) and are typically not used by consumers.