What is a digital camera? What are the functions?

Digital Camera is also called digital camera, and the English full name is digital camera, DC for short. Digital camera is a product integrating optics, machinery and electronics. It integrates the conversion, storage and transmission of image information, and has the characteristics of digital access, interactive processing with computer and real-time shooting. Digital cameras first appeared in America. More than 20 years ago, the United States used it to transmit photos to the ground via satellite. Later, digital photography was converted to civilian use, and its application scope continued to expand.

Historical Records of the Development of Digital Cameras

2005.07.28 1 1:27:08

The camera has been developed for nearly 200 years since it was invented by the French in 1839. In these 200 years, the camera has experienced the trinity from black and white to color, from simple optical mechanical structure to optical mechanical electronics, from traditional silver salt film to digital memory as a recording medium today. Laughing at the floating clouds obscures the eyes, and the sea changes suddenly. The appearance of digital cameras officially marks the leap-forward development of the camera industry into a brand-new digital era, and people's image life has been completely changed.

Since Bauer and Smith of Bell Institute announced the invention of "CCD" on 1969 and 10 on June 7th, this photosensitive element has been further improved and has been widely used today. The latest improved versions, such as 4-color CCD and super CCD, are constantly emerging, and the number of pixels has already exceeded 10 million pixels, but the imaging effect has also reached perfection.

After more than ten years of continuous development, DC industry has gone out of the initial stage, with more mature design and increasingly powerful operation functions, and with the further reduction of manufacturing costs, the development of such products has shown signs of unlimited development.

Generally speaking, the development process of DC industry for more than ten years has been adhering to the development vein of "higher, faster, stronger and more humane". It is with the unremitting efforts of manufacturers that today's digital camera market will become so prosperous and beautiful. While enjoying the convenience brought by science and technology, people can't help but think of the bumpy road that digital cameras went through at the beginning of their birth. Some classic models that have had a great impact on this industry are still unforgettable.

Cambrian Explosion

A lot of life suddenly appeared in CAMBRIAN, and the whole earth became colorful and full of vitality overnight. Archaeologists haven't given a clear answer yet. The 1980s is no different from the Cambrian of digital camera industry. In less than ten years, digital cameras quickly got rid of infancy and gradually learned to stumble. Although the resolution was still very low at that time, the participation of many manufacturers made the industry full of vitality.

Sony ma bika- the world's first electronic camera without photographic film

In June, 1973, 1 1, Sony officially started the research of "electronic eye" CCD. On the basis of continuous technical accumulation, the world's first electronic camera-still image "Mapika" was launched in June of 438+098 1. The camera uses 10 mm× 12 mm CCD chip, and the resolution is only 570× 490 (279,000) pixels, which is the first time to convert optical signals into electrical signals for transmission.

Then, Panasonic, Copa, Fuji, Canon, Nikon and other companies also started the research and development of electronic cameras, and launched their own prototype electronic cameras at 1984- 1986, and the explosion of life began.

Sony MYC-A7AF-Digital camera has a purely physical operation mode for the first time.

The second camera is also made by Sony, which is a milestone in the development history of DC industry. It can be seen that the company's market position today is by no means "a wave of fame". 1986, Sony released MYC-A7AF, which made the digital camera have a purely physical operation mode for the first time. It can record still images on a 2-inch optical disc, and the pixel resolution has been extended to 380,000 pixels. Casio vs-101-the first CMOS sensor electronic camera

1987, Casio first sold VS-10/electronic cameras using CMOS photosensitive devices in the market. Although the resolution can only reach 280 thousand pixels, it is of great significance to DC industry.

As far as today is concerned, the dispute between the orthodox CMOS and CCD of digital camera photosensitive devices has long been settled. In addition to being widely used in Canon's high-end cameras today, other manufacturers regard CCD as the leading direction of their products. It is true that CMOS has the advantages of full format and low energy consumption, which is really attractive, but the shortcomings of low dynamic range can not help but make people "stay away from it."

Canon RC-760- the first 600,000 pixel model

In order to get the shooting effect close to the traditional camera, improving the pixel resolution of CCD is the most fundamental solution. However, in the early days of the birth of digital cameras, it was difficult to talk about a higher level with pixels. In recent years, manufacturers have been struggling at the level of 300,000 pixels. It was not until 1988 that Canon introduced the RC-760 with 600,000 pixels.

This electronic camera uses a 2/3 inch 600,000-pixel CCD, which looks a little dull today, but it is the machine with the highest pixel in that era, and the price is more expensive than a car today.

Cretaceous-Dinosaur Fierce

After a long evolution, life finally gave birth to a more advanced life form in the Cretaceous, and the world suddenly became lively. The continuous technical accumulation in the 1980s finally ushered in the real prosperity of the digital camera industry in the 1990s. Since then, the digital camera has established its basic survival mode.

Kodak DCS100-Established the universal mode of digital camera for the first time in the world.

1990, Kodak introduced the DCS 100 electronic camera, and established the general model of digital camera for the first time in the world. Since then, this model has become the industry standard.

For professional photographers, if the new machine has a familiar fuselage and control mode, it will undoubtedly become easier to use. In order to cater to this consumer psychology, Kodak applied the well-known Nikon F3 fuselage to DCS 100. Except for the focus screen and film winding motor, the internal functions are the same as F3, and it is compatible with most Nikon lenses, which is really intimate.

This digital SLR uses a CCD of 20.5 x 16.4mm,10.4 million pixels, and the optical magnification is10.8 times. However, due to the technical level at that time, it is not equipped with a built-in memory, so it can only be used with a bulky external storage unit (DSU). Similar to today's camera base, DSU is powered by battery, with 200MB of built-in memory, which can store 150 uncompressed RAW photos.

Compared with the current machine, the framing method is also very primitive. Photographers can use the optical viewfinder on the camera or the 4-inch LCD screen on the DSU. Although it was inconvenient, it was already very high-end at that time. The price of this machine at that time was equivalent to 225,000 RMB today, which was really outrageous.

After the success of DCS 100, Kodak introduced the DCS200, the follow-up model of DCS 100, in 192. It finally got rid of the burden of DSU, and the memory was placed inside the fuselage, so it became very comfortable to take it out for shooting.

Nikon/Fuji E2/E2s—— Digital SLR jointly developed by Nikon and Fuji

Whether Kodak or Canon, in the early product design, the film body of the original traditional camera was adopted. Although this can make professional photographers feel the affinity of products, it is inevitable that more products will make people feel boring. 1995, Nikon and Fuji jointly launched a newly designed E2/E2s, which no longer copied the old traditional fuselage and adopted an integrated design style, giving people a refreshing feeling easily.

The resolution of this digital SLR is only 6.5438+0.3 million pixels, which is far from the 6 million pixels owned by Kodak DCS460 at the same time. The most special feature of E2/E2s is that it adopts the latest ROS optical system developed by Nikon, and projects light onto a CCD with an area smaller than 35mm film through a set of optical elements. On this basis, the angle of view of the lens can remain unchanged, but the effective aperture is seriously reduced, which greatly affects the imaging quality.

The integrated design makes the appearance of the machine more concise, but the complexity of the internal structure will inevitably lead to the expansion of the external volume, and the total weight is also out of control. This machine has accumulated a lot of experience for Nikon's digital SLR research and development. Four years after listing, Nikon launched the epoch-making D 1, and the Cretaceous era of the digital camera industry completely ended.

Jurassic-dangerous jungle

Jurassic has a very complete biological category, where there are gentle and supple herbivorous dinosaurs, lively and active white-faced monkeys and very ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex. If every animal wants to survive in this world, it must try its best to become stronger. Only in this way can we relax in this jungle where the law of the jungle prevails.

Nikon d1-Nikon's first self-developed digital SLR

1In June, 1999, Nikon finally launched the first self-developed digital SLR-D1,which opened a new era of digital SLR commercialization at a price far lower than Kodak DCS series cameras.

The body of this digital SLR is modified on the basis of the traditional camera F5, and it still maintains a charming professional temperament. Built-in 2.74 million pixel CCD, ISO sensitivity 200- 1600. It uses CF card /IBM micro hard disk as storage medium and supports JPEG, TIFF and RAW file formats. The price is $5,580, which is still very expensive.

Canon EOS 1D—— Canon's digital single-shot myth

For a long time, while competing for pixel resolution, the competition between manufacturers in shooting speed is also in full swing. In order to completely surpass the myth created by Nikon D 1, Canon launched EOS 1D in September 2006, which completely surpassed Nikon D 1 in speed and technical indicators, and made a new generation of legends in DC industry.

This digital SLR has a resolution of 4 million pixels and ISO sensitivity of 100- 1600. It also uses CF card /IBM micro hard disk as storage medium, and the price is about 7,000 dollars.

The representative work of Olympus E-1-4/3 system.

Just like the early notebook manufacturers, in order to create the biggest catch-up trouble for competitors, digital SLR manufacturers should deliberately avoid compatibility with competitors' products when designing products. In this way, it is impossible for any brand of digital camera components to be universal, and users can only buy products of the same brand for replacement after the components are damaged, so that manufacturers can maximize profits.

Today's notebooks are already compatible, which can be said that computer manufacturers are becoming more and more enlightened, and the reform of digital camera industry is also quietly going on. From June 5438 to February 2003, Olympus released the "4/3 system" E- 1 jointly developed by Kodak and Fuji.

The 4/3 system specifies the area of CCD photosensitive device, the distance between CCD and lens and the diameter of lens. Therefore, any digital SLR using this system can easily realize the mutual compatibility of lenses, which is absolutely unimaginable in previous products.

E- 1 adopts 5 megapixel CCD, ISO sensitivity range 100-800, uses CF card as storage medium, and supports JPEG, RAW and TIFF file formats. At the beginning of publication, the price was as high as 16000 RMB.

Canon EOS 300d—— The King of Digital SLR for Civilian Generation

Digital SLR has powerful functions and beautiful shooting quality, but its high price is the biggest obstacle for it not to be close to ordinary people. In order to successfully popularize digital SLR, manufacturers are always trying their best to reduce costs. Thanks to their unremitting efforts, a batch of affordable digital SLR finally surfaced, and Canon E0S 300D is undoubtedly the forerunner of this process.

In August, 2003, Canon introduced the EOS 300D with plastic body, which integrated the CMOS sensor used by its predecessor EOS-1000, and the price was lower than1000 for the first time, which completely changed the original competitive pattern in the digital camera market.

This camera uses a 6.3 megapixel CCD with ISO sensitivity of 100- 1600, and uses a CF card as the storage medium. The design adopts three colors of silver, gray and black, and the overall feeling is not bad.

Added on May 30, 2006:

Digital cameras are the same as traditional cameras in appearance and function, mainly capturing and saving dynamic or static images in real time. The most obvious difference between a digital camera and a traditional camera is the storage medium. A digital camera uses a disk or memory card that can record images to access images. After shooting, it can be transmitted to the computer by standard computers such as rs-232, epp and usb, or printed directly by a printer with special functions. Its biggest advantage is that when the shooting effect is not ideal, it can delete the remake in time, and it doesn't need to be bought like a traditional camera. In processing efficiency, digital cameras also have great advantages over traditional cameras. In the past, hundreds of photos taken after an activity had to wait for development and mailing time if they passed through traditional cameras. Now, as long as the image is transmitted to the computer through a digital camera, it can be sent to the participants in real time by e-mail. Therefore, digital camera can be said to be one of the very convenient imaging devices in this efficiency era.