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... ted) into JPEG format. The completed image is then transferred to the memory card on the camera. Some cameras will need this process to finish before taking another picture, some cameras have an internal buffer that is large enough to hold a number of pictures, and can therefore take multiple pictures in a row, called burst shooting. Before a picture is taken the camera must prepare for it. That is why there is sometimes a delay from when the shutter release button is pressed and when the picture is actually taken.
Newer cameras have much faster response times, but some of the old cameras have quite a noticeable lag. To prepare for a picture to be taken, the shutter release button is pressed halfway and the camera performs a number of operations. If the camera has some of it's automatic functions turned on, one or more of the following may need to be performed, the auto focus will need to focus in on the target, the white balance, exposure time and shutter speed need to be calculated, and the CCD (Charged-Couple Device) must be charged, as it can't hold a charge very long. Once the shutter release button is pressed, the shutter is opened, and it allows light to pass though the lens and strike the CCD. The CCD is made up of (usually) millions of tiny sensors that record the amount of light that hits them. The sensors only record the amount of light that hits them, not the colour of the light.
For the digital camera to detect what colour is in each pixel, a special method is used. To capture colour, the digital camera applies a colour filter over the individual sensors, the filter is usually applied directly to the CCD using dye. The most common filter used is the Bayer filter, see the table at the bottom of this page for an example. This image would be 4 pixels square on the CCD, a 2 x 2 pixel pattern repeating thousands of times consisting of Red, Blue, and Green filters, and as you may have noticed there are twice as many green squares as red and blue. This is because human eyes have sensitivity to the luminescence properties of green, because it is in the middle of the spectrum. So a 1 mega pixel camera will have 540, 000 green pixels, 270, 000 red pixels, and 270, 000 blue pixels.
A few manufacturers use a different method involving 4 colours, (Cyan, Green, Magenta, and Yellow), see in the table below. Using this method there are an equal number of pixels for each colour. There are two different settings that determine how much light strikes the CCD, the shutter speed, which determines how long the light stays on the CCD, and the aperture setting, which determines how much light hits the CCD. After the light strikes the CCD, the individual sensors convert the amount of light hitting them into an electrical signal, which is originally stored as an analogue signal, and is converted to a digital signal by a analogue to digital converter (ADC). Each of these sensors represents 1 pixel, and the actual 24 -bit colour is determined by the average of the pixel and all of its neighbours. The information on the CCD is then read one horizontal line at a time to the internal memory of the camera, and on their way to internal memory they pass through the internal filters, such as white balance and colour.
The internal memory then stitches all of the individual pixels into an image. The image in its uncompressed form is then (if selected), compressed. The compression is almost always JPEG compression, and JPEG is named after the committee that designed it, the Joint Photographic Experts Group. The JPEG method is based on the fact that humans are much more aware of small changes in brightness (luminance) than small changes in colour or large changes in colour or brightness. The JPEG compression algorithm works well and can easily achieve a 10: 1 or 20: 1 (or more) compression ration, depending on the compression settings, with minimal visible image quality loss. After all this happens the image is then saved to the memory device of the camera, whether it be Smart Media, Compact Flash, or some other type of memory, (see our Memory section of this site to see the differences between the different types of storage media).
In the last few years, computers have become more affordable to the general public. But they have also had an exponential advancement in memory, processing power and software applications. With the use of the Internet and E-mail, this combination has prompted an explosion in the manufacture of peripherals which are able to benefit from these advancements. In the last five years, peripherals, especially Multimedia Peripherals, have made the Personal Computer an almost essential household appliance.
In the next few years we can expect to see advancements in peripherals which may one day prompt the next computer revolution. To produce this report, I consulted some computer magazines (PC Pro, What PC, PC Buyer) and some mail order catalogues (Global Direct, Dabs Direct, Simply), but the information on these magazines are only correct at the time of going to press. Also, they provided little in the way of information about the product such as how it worked and its history. While searching on the World Wide Web I found websites such a Webopedia. com. This site offered an online directory of computer terms and thorough explanations with diagrams.
I also found Computer User. com, this is a website with offers a Hi Tech dictionary which helped in explaining some of the terms I was encountering. Another site which had many recourses to offer was Cnet. com. But the site which I found most useful was Digital Camera. Com.
This site offered a variety of information on the subject I had chosen to white about in this report. In conclusion, this report would have been much less informative if it were not for the up-to-date information offered by the Internet. Aperture The aperture in a camera determines how much light strikes the CCD, a small f number on the camera indicates a larger aperture, and a large f number indicates a smaller aperture. Many cameras allow you to change the f number, which corresponds to the aperture size. The f number corresponds to how big the aperture is in relation to the lens. A f/ 4 aperture setting means that the aperture is one quarter the size of the lens.
A f/ 10 setting means that the aperture is one tenth the size of the lens. Buffer The buffer is the internal memory in the digital camera, it stores the pictures after the information comes off of the CCD. The internal memory also helps in burst shooting, as it will hold a number of pictures as the camera takes pictures. CCD CCD stands for Charged-Couple Device.
The CCD is the part of the digital camera that converts light to an electric signal useable by the digital camera's electronics. The CCD is made up of (usually) millions of tiny sensors that record the amount of light that hits them, each sensor contains the information for one pixel. The sensors only record the amount of light that hits them, not the color of the light. For the digital camera to detect what color is in each pixel, a special method is used.
To capture color, the digital camera applies a color filter over the individual sensors, the filter is usually applied directly to the CCD using dye. Digital The storage of data in the form of binary numbers, 0 and 1. Digital information can be copied and stored with no loss of information. JPEG JPEG is named after the committee that designed it, the Joint Photographic Experts Group.
The JPEG method is based on the fact that humans are much more aware of small changes in brightness (luminance) than small changes in color or large changes in color or brightness. The JPEG compression algorithm works well and can easily achieve a 10: 1 or 20: 1 (or more) compression ration, depending on the compression settings, with minimal visible image quality loss. LCD Stands for Liquid Crystal Display. This is usually the small screen on the back of the digital camera, though not all cameras have them. Used to display camera information, menu systems, and can be used as a viewfinder.
Most LCD's are difficult to see in bright sunlight, due to the fact that the sun's rays overpower the light being emitted by the screen. Pixel A pixel is one dot that carries the information from the optical sensor on the CCD to the image itself. Each pixel displays one color and all of the pixels together produce the image. Shutter The shutter is a device which limits how long light strikes the CCD, the amount of light is determined by the shutter speed and the aperture setting. The shutter differs between digital cameras, some will use a physical shutter, and some use an electronic shutter. The physical shutters will allow light to strike the CCD by letting light past some kind of physical barrier.
The electronic shutters will turn the CCD on for the time allotted by the shutter speed. Shutter Release Button This is the button that you use to take your picture, this button is sometimes used to prepare the camera for picture taking. Pressing the shutter release button halfway may (depending on your camera, and its settings), focus the auto focus, prepare the flash, adjust the white balance, exposure time, and shutter speed. Pressing the shutter release button all the way down will open the shutter and the picture will be taken. Shutter Speed The shutter speed is the length of time that the CCD is exposed to light. Shutter speed times range from very short, up to 1 / 10000 of a second to infinitely long.
Small shutter speeds are better for action shots. White Balance The white balance relates to what the camera determines as the color white in the image. Different light conditions will result in the color white appearing differently. Some cameras will offer automatic white balance, this will allow the camera to choose the white setting based on what it thinks should be white in the picture. Sometimes this will be a problem is there is a dominant color in the picture that is not white. Other cameras have a number of white balance presets, including fluorescent, sunlight, cloudy, and others.
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