ALL ABOUT CAMERA AND CAMERA TECH Ashwin Balaje

INTRODUCTION Have you ever wondered why a DSLR camera looks better than a phone camera? Or why your pictures are pixelated when you zoom on your phone camera? To understand what makes a good camera good, you must first understand how a camera works. We will be focusing on digital cameras, not film-based ones.

How a camera works

LIGHT Good lighting is key to having a clear and rich image, whether the light is natural from the sun, or artificial from a softbox. This is because just like the human eye, without light it can be difficult for the camera “to see” and the world around us can appear more dull. This light is bounced off of your subject and into your camera, or specifically your lens.

LENS The lens of the camera is an array of various lenses that are used together to focus the light it receives onto the sensor on the camera. The lens is where the zoom “happens” on a camera. How far you can zoom on a camera is dictated by the range of focal length that the lens is capable of. The diaphragm of the camera is also located on the lens. The diaphragm is what controls the aperture of the camera, which is a hole that can be enlarged or shrunk to change the amount of light entering the camera.

CAMERA BODY After the light passes through the aperture, it is met by the shutter. The shutter only opens when you press the capture button to expose the camera sensor to the light rays passing through the aperture of the lens. The amount of time that the shutter is opened is dependent on the shutter speed you are shooting at. A faster shutter speed will also make a very fast moving subject appear frozen without blurriness. Finally once past the shutter, the light finally reaches the sensor. The sensor is where the light rays are captured by the camera and processed into a digital image file. A bigger sensor will perform better in low light than a smaller sensor since there is more surface area for the light to be captured (Although it is not possible to interchange the sensor on a camera as with a lens). A factor that can change how sensitive the sensor is to light is ISO. Higher ISOs will result in a somewhat brighter image, but it also brings in grain which causes the image to be ”grainy”.

RECAP To recap, essentially light passes through the lens, through the aperture, past the shutter and onto the camera sensor. As you have just learned, there are many factors that you can manipulate how you want an image to look like. EX. Focal Length (for zoom) Aperture (for depth of view and light) Shutter Speed (for fast moving subjects and light) ISO (for light)

Different camera types

Smartphone Cameras Although smartphone cameras are becoming better and better each year, there are still many flaws with them such as: fixed focal length fixed aperture no shutter fixed lens This means we do not have much versatility with our photos. We are most likely only able to focus and then take our photo. Fixed focal length means that we must digitally zoom the image, which results in a loss of quality. Some phones are getting around this limitation, such as the iPhone 7 Plus. It features a dual camera system, with a different focal length on each. This means that you can “change” the focal length and zoom 2 times by the phone automatically switching the camera. Smartphone cameras are always with us which means they are always accessible to us.

”Point and Shoot” Cameras ”Point and Shoot” Cameras are named appropriately as you most likely will just point the camera and shoot without thinking about the settings. These are the cameras that most families own as well. Typically most of them include: A range of focal lengths for zooming A range of apertures A range of shutterspeeds fixed lens These cameras have the capability to be good with all the options they give the photographer but typically these cameras are budget options. This means that most manufacturers put lower quality lenses and sensors to keep costs low. Some people may invest in a ”prosumer” level Point and Shoot camera such as a Sony RX100 mark V, which can compete with even entry-level DSLR cameras, but will typically cost most than a DSLR if you compare Price to Performance.

Digital Single-Lens Reflex Camera or “DSLR” When people think of a good camera, they are typically thinking about a DSLR camera. Range of Focal Lengths or Fixed Focal Length (depending on your lens choice) Range of Apertures Range of Shutter Speeds Interchangable Lenses DSLR cameras are great because they give the photographer the complete freedom with how they want to setup the shot. The main problem with DSLR cameras is their size since they have to have a mirror inside. This means you won’t always have the camera with you, incase you see a shot you want to take.

Mirrorless Cameras Mirrorless Cameras are a new catergory that has become popular in recent years for their size. They have all the benefits of a mirrorless camera in the size of a bigger Point and Shoot or smaller DSLR. As the name suggests, mirrorless cameras lack the mirror that DSLR cameras require. Range of Focal Lengths or Fixed Focal Length (depending on your lens choice) Range of Apertures Range Shutter Speeds Interchangable lenses Mirrorless cameras are amazing, and are the future. The only downside to them is that it requires to have a digital viewfinder rather than an optical viewfinder like a DSLR. That means the viewfinder is just a screen, and you are not actually looking through the lense like a DSLR.

DEFINITIONS

APERTURE The aperture is a hole that that can be widened or shrunk to allow or block light. Aperture can also be used to affect depth of field. An aperture of f/1.4 will be a very large hole to allow a lot of light into the camera and will allow the subject to stay in focus while the background is blurred. An aperture of f/32 will result in an extremely small hole thus blocking a lot of light, but results in the entire image to be in focus.

FOCAL LENGTH Focal length is the distance from the point where the light rays converge to the sensor. In simpler terms, just know that the longer the focal length is, the higher the magnification and the shorter the focal length, and the lower the magnification. The focal length can be changed on a zoom lens by extending it so that the point that the light rays converge is farther away from the sensor, thus creating a zoomed image