camera

By Arpan Chakraborty

The camera obscura (Latin; "camera" is a "vaulted chamber/room" + "obscura" means "dark"= "darkened chamber/room") is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen.

The first mention of the principles behind the pinhole camera, a precursor to the camera obscura, belongs to Mo-Ti (470 BCE to 390 BCE), a Chinese philosopher and the founder of Mohism.[1] Mo-Ti referred to this camera as a "collecting plate" or "locked treasure room".[2] The Mohist tradition is unusual in Chinese thought because it is concerned with developing principles of logic.

A digital camera (or digicam) is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. Most 21st century cameras are digitalDigital cameras can do things film cameras cannot: displaying images on a screen immediately after they are recorded, storing thousands of images on a single small memory device, and deleting images to free storage space. The majority, including most compact cameras, can record moving video with sound as well as still photographs. Some can crop and stitch pictures and perform other elementary image editing. Some have a GPS receiver built in, and can produce Geotagged photographs

Point and shoot cameras mean just that, point the camera at something and trip the shutter. The camera does all the work for you. Unfortunately, the camera is rarely as smart as the photographer so the results can be iffy. Point and shoot cameras are often abbreviated as P&S. These cameras started out as a fixed lens that focused about 4 feet in front of the camera with a fixed aperture and shutter speed. It was basically a box with a shutter. Then the lab that developed the film did what it could to fix the exposure. Today's P&S cameras are much more sophisticated.

SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex and DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex and refers to how the light enters the camera. These are the cameras you see many professionals and serious amateurs lugging around. These cameras have a larger body than most P&S cameras and interchangeable lenses. While SLRs started out a fully manual, where the photographer had to control all features including focus, most of these cameras are capable of acting in a fully automatic mode just like a P&S. Many now allow the photographer the freedom to also take control of all functions or any combination of functions. These cameras allow for great control over the photography process and allow the photographer to take images not always possible with a P&S.

The demand for digital cameras has presented a strong outlook, including cameras fitted in devices such as mobile phones and showed a positive response even in the economic downturn, during 2008 & 2009. Technological advancement has helped the growth of various consumer electronics products, digital cameras being one of themSLR accounted for the highest growth rate in 2009, driven by growth in Asia, especially in China. The potential for growth of digital SLR cameras is very high because of technological innovations, portability, falling prices and rising interest of teens. The growth rate has slowed down in Japan and the US, while it has increased in the emerging regions of China, India and Eastern Europe Demand for Digital cameras and SLR has been mainly driven by demand in emerging markets (China, Russia), rising internet usage and favouring disposable income.