Basic Camera Operations

Question 1

Outline the general 5 steps of how a digital camera works.

Answer 1

Step 1: Point to the image to photograph and take the picture. Light passes through the lens
Step 2: The image is focused on a chip called a charge-coupled device (CCD)
Step 3: The CCD generates and analog signal that represents the image.
Step 4: The analog signal is converted to a digital signal by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
Step 5: A processor in the camera adjusts the quality of the image and usually stores the image on miniature mobile storage media inserted into the camera.

Question 2

How does the CCD work?

Answer 2

Contains light sensitive pixels that measure the light energy striking each pixel.

Question 3

What is a Bayer filter? What does it do?

Answer 3

A colour filter that sits on top of the CCD, allowing certain pixels to only measure certain colours of light waves.

Question 4

Why are there more green pixels in a digital camera?

Answer 4

Our eyes are most sensitive to green light.

Question 5

What are the primary colours of a digital camera?

Answer 5

Red, blue, green

Question 6

Which is faster, CCD or CMOS?

Answer 6

CMOS

Question 7

Differentiate between CCD and CMOS

Answer 7

CCD - horizontal and vertical row of charge capacitors
CMOS - each pixel has its own analog-to-digital convertor attached, information converted immediately

Question 8

How does the analog to digital convertor work?

Answer 8

As light hits the pixels, an electric charge is created and a measure in the change of voltage is recorded at each pixel site.
The data collected in each pixel gets converted into a digital signal.

Question 9

What is the function of a camera’s circuit board?

Answer 9

Carries the data from the image sensor (CCD or CMOS) and stores it to the memory card.