Overview of electronic figures

Digital camera is a kind of camera that uses electronic sensors to convert optical images into electronic data. Different from the principle that ordinary cameras record images on film through the chemical changes of silver bromide, the sensors of digital cameras are light-induced charge-coupled -{zh-cn: devices; Zh-tw: Component }-(CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Before an image is transmitted to a computer, it is usually stored in a digital storage device (usually using flash memory; Floppy disks and rewritable compact discs (CD-RW) are rarely used in digital camera equipment.

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. 1. You can see the picture immediately after taking a picture, which provides the possibility of remaking the dissatisfied work immediately and reduces the occurrence of regrets.

Just pay for those photos you want to develop, and other unnecessary photos can be deleted.

3. Color reproduction and color range no longer depend on the quality of the film.

4. Sensitivity is no longer fixed by film. The photoelectric conversion chip can provide a variety of sensitivity options. 1. Due to the conversion between imaging elements and image processing chips, the imaging quality is less layered than that of optical cameras.

2. Due to the different technologies of image processing chips from different manufacturers, the colors of the imaged photos are different from the real ones.

3. Due to the lack of core technology in China, the later use and maintenance costs are high. The history of digital cameras can be traced back to the forties and fifties of last century, when television appeared. With the popularity of TV, people need a device that can record the TV programs being played. 195 1 year, Ben crosby's laboratory invented the video recorder (VTR), which can record the current pulses in TV broadcasting on magnetic tape. By 1956, the video recorder began mass production. At the same time, it is regarded as the product of electronic imaging technology.

The second milestone took place at NASA in the 1960s. Before astronauts are sent to the moon, NASA must survey the surface of the moon. However, engineers found that the analog signal sent back by the detector was mixed with other rays in the universe, so weak that the receiver on the ground could not convert the signal into a clear image. So engineers have to find another way. 1970 is a landmark year in the image processing industry, and Bell Laboratories invented CCD. When engineers digitally process the image information obtained by CCD with computers, all the interference information is eliminated. Later, the Apollo moon landing spacecraft was equipped with a device using CCD, which is the prototype of digital camera. During the Apollo moon landing, the digital images received by NASA were very clear.

After that, digital image technology developed faster, mainly due to the technical competition during the Cold War. These technologies are also mainly used in the military field, and most spy satellites adopt digital image technology.

In the history of digital camera development, we have to mention Sony. 198 1 August, Sony first used CCD in TV cameras as a sensor to directly convert light into digital signals. The CCD produced by Sony accounts for 50% of the global market every year, which is one reason why Sony can stand out in the digital camera market, because the core lifeline is in its own hands.

After the end of the cold war, military technology quickly changed into market technology. From 65438 to 0995, Kodak Company, which produces traditional cameras and has strong film production capacity, released its mature consumer digital camera DC40 to the market. Many people think this is the beginning of the digital camera market. DC40 uses 4MB of internal memory and cannot use other removable storage media. Its 380,000-pixel CCD supports the generation of 756×504 images and is compatible with Windows 3. 1 and DOS. Apple's QuickTake 100 is also on the market. At that time, both cameras provided a serial connection with the computer.

Since then, digital cameras have mushroomed from camera manufacturers, the number of pixels of CCD has been increasing, the functions of cameras have been constantly refurbished, and the images taken are getting closer and closer to traditional cameras.

The History of Digital Cameras in Recent Ten Years

Digital cameras in the 20th century and 1990s.

(1) Early products began the research and development of "CCD chip" as early as the 1960s, and developed a digital camera for the aerospace industry, which sent space photos from space to the ground through a satellite system. 1969, the United States took pictures on the moon for the first time, and left a special 500EL Hasan Burt digital camera on the moon for a long time.

198 1 year, Sony invented the world's first electronic still camera without photosensitive film-still life video "Mavika" camera. This is the prototype of today's digital camera.

At the 1988 Cologne Expo, Fuji and Toshiba exhibited the Pujixs digital camera "DS- 1p" jointly developed by * * and using fast flash cards. Before and after this, Fuji, Toshiba, Olympus, Konica, Canon, etc. Trial products of digital cameras such as Canon RC-70655 have been published one after another.

(2) Products in the early 1990s: 199 1 Kodak successfully trial-produced the world's first digital camera, and Toshiba released a 400,000-pixel MC-200 digital camera, priced at 6.5438+0.7 million yen, which is the first digital camera on the market.

1994 Kodak commercial digital camera DC40 was officially launched. 1995 In February, Casio released a low-priced digital camera QV- 10 with 250,000 pixels and 65,000 yen, which triggered a boom in the digital camera market. 1995 canon EOS DCS3C came out, and EOS DCS 1C was launched in the same year, which opened the development history of canon digital SLR cameras. 1995 officially kicked off the digital camera. In order to welcome the arrival of digital cameras, the board of directors of Kodak Company made a decision to develop digital science in an all-round way in 1995. 1996 jointly launched DCS-460 and DCS-620X digital cameras with Nikon, and jointly launched DCS-420 digital cameras with Canon (professional).

1995, the number of pixels of digital cameras in the world is only 410000; To 1996 almost doubled, reaching 8 1 10,000 pixels, and the shipment of digital cameras reached 500,000 units; 1997 increased to 1 10,000 pixels, and the shipment of digital cameras exceeded 1 10,000 units.

1996 Olympus and Canon also launched their own digital cameras. Subsequently, nearly 20 companies, including Fuji, Konica, Minolta, Nikon, Ricoh, Contac, Sony, Toshiba, JVC and Sanyo, successively participated in the research and development and production of digital cameras and launched their own digital cameras.

1997 1 1 The DC2 10 zoom digital camera released by Kodak Company adopts 1.09 million square pixel CCD image sensor; Fuji released the DC-300 digital camera.

1997, Olympus first introduced the CA-MEDIC- 1400L SLR digital camera with over one million pixels, which caused great shock in the industry.

1997, one of the most striking features of the PMA International Photographic Equipment Expo in the United States is the combination of traditional photographic equipment and computer information processing, and the image acquisition and transmission have become the same cause of the optoelectronic industry and the computer industry, and some IT manufacturers have begun to intervene in digital photography. At the same time, major companies have introduced high-pixel digital cameras and large-size digital image output devices, and more popular digital cameras under 1000 dollars have been introduced, the cheapest of which can be below 200 dollars, creating conditions for digital cameras to enter the homes of ordinary people. It ushered in a new climax of the development and popularization of digital cameras.

The popular digital camera in 1997 is a digital camera with about 350,000 CCD pixels and the maximum resolution of 640×480 pixels. Megapixel cameras have just emerged, and only fujifilm, Olympus, Kodak and Konica have introduced new products. The development focus of Volkswagen digital camera is not only to improve the resolution, but also to develop special functions, that is, some functions that traditional film cameras can't do, to show the advantages of digital cameras, such as equipping the body with a LCD monitor screen as a viewfinder, checking the shooting effect on the spot after shooting, making the lens rotate to a certain extent, combining the self-portrait function with the LCD screen, and installing the function of quickly transmitting image data to the computer.

(3) 1998 Great Development of Digital Cameras 1998 fujifilm Company launched the first million-level (10.5 million pixels) NEPIX700 digital camera, using the lightest, smallest and most popular blades; Canon cooperated with Kodak Company to develop the first digital SLR cameras EOSD2000 and EOSD6000 with LCD.

1998 is a year of great development of popular digital cameras, and it is also a year when low-priced "mega-pixel" digital cameras become new hot spots and mainstream products. It not only has high resolution and low price, but also has more functions, and many technical characteristics tend to be in line with traditional fully automatic small cameras. In that year, more than 60 new models were released or sold, with more than 20 manufacturers: Casio (4 kinds), fujifilm (8 kinds), Kodak (4 kinds), Minolta (3 kinds), Nikon (3 kinds), Canon (4 kinds), Olympus (4 kinds), Sanyo (6 kinds), Sony (6 kinds) and Seiko Epp. Toshiba, Panasonic, Hitachi, JVC, Kyocera, Leica, Samsung and China Seagull all released one. Among them, new products that reach or exceed "one million pixels" account for about 80% of all new models. Canon PowerShotPro70 digital camera has a maximum of 1.68 million pixels, with 2.5 times optical zoom and 2 times digital zoom, TTL autofocus, automatic exposure, 2-inch color TPY LCD screen, and has the function of shooting at 4 frames per second and 5 seconds at most.

1998 digital camera has made great efforts in function, which can be summarized as follows:

1. Adopt optical zoom lens. There are 2 times, 2.5 times, 3 times, 5 times, 10 times, and the highest is 14 times. In addition, some cameras also have digital zoom function, which is 2 times or 4 times.

2. It has the function of external flash. Some models have the functions of built-in flash and external synchronous flash.

3. Equipped with interchangeable "lens-—CCD" unit, which has the ability to expand systematization.

4. It has the function of TTL optical framing or SLR framing.

5. SLR interchangeable lens function.

6. You can automatically set parameters such as manual focusing, aperture priority and shutter priority to control exposure.

7. After installing the "Digita" special operating system for digital images, new functions such as shooting program setting have been added (Kodak, Minolta and other products have been installed).

8. There are many shooting methods.

9. Use USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface to quickly download image data to the computer.

10. The function of directly printing digital photos (or recording media such as SM cards) with a special printer without personal computer connection.

1998 Typical products of digital cameras are: 1. Kodak DC260 digital camera: 65438+600,000 pixel CCD image sensor; 3x optical zoom and 2x digital zoom; Can be connected to flash synchronization line; Shutter priority aperture priority automatic exposure function, with shooting program preset function; USB interface, etc.

2. Casio QV-7000SX digital camera:1998 was launched in September, which is the highest grade product in OV series. 2 x optical zoom and 4 x digital zoom, aperture priority automatic exposure, 7 kinds of operating parameters customization functions. In addition, there are passive automatic focusing or manual focusing with phase difference, multi-zone metering or spot metering, LCD display screen, image double magnification, automatic date recording, HTML file generation and various shooting functions.

3. Minolta DemageEX series digital cameras: 1998 10, including EXzoom 1500 and exwiea1500; The former is equipped with a triple zoom lens -CCD unit (7-2 16 mm/F3.5-5.6), while the latter is equipped with a wide-angle lens -CCD unit (5.2mm/F 1.9). Its * * * features are the same: 1/2 inch 65438. It has the continuous shooting function of 3.5 frames per second and at most 7 frames; Five scenarios can be set; It has the same operational performance as traditional film.

4. Minolta DemageRD3000 digital camera, which is based on "APS" SLR camera S- 1, is a interchangeable lens SLR digital camera. It uses two CCD image sensors with a total pixel of 2.7 million.

5. The waterproof and dustproof "Megapixel" camera appears in Fuji BIGGOBDS-25 OHD digital camera. It is a waterproof and dustproof "Megapixel" digital camera. Based on the FinePix700 camera, it has a total pixel of 654.38+0.5 million, and adopts a special coating of Japanese industrial standard level 7, plus a high-definition camera back and a large flash of GN24.

Konica DG- 1 digital camera went on sale in September, 1998. It also has a seven-level waterproof and dustproof design with a total pixel1080,000. The fuselage and important parts are protected by hard rubber materials. It is suitable for on-site monitoring of civil engineering, and images can be transmitted and printed in engineering records and operation report files immediately.

In addition, some companies have developed special waterproof and dustproof jackets, such as DC200, DC2 10Zoom and DC210Zoom of Kodak Company, which can be used in 3m deep water. Canon also introduced waterproof jackets for PowerShotA5 and A5zoom.

6. Personalized development is a new bright spot in the development of digital cameras. With the fierce competition, the characteristics of products become more and more obvious. Personalized products have a selling point in the market. The characteristics of major manufacturers are as follows:

Sony: equipped with 10x- 14x zoom lens, it can record static and dynamic images with floppy disk, and can copy the recorded images in the machine.

Canon: miniaturization, APS small camera modeling, SLR high resolution, large storage space.

Casio: low-end, multi-functional, large LCD screen, rotatable lens.

Fujifilm: Take the shape of a traditional film camera with high resolution and low price; Ultra-small, metal shell, multi-function, multi-feature and fashion.

Kodak: high resolution and high technology content; Lower price, larger storage capacity and more software.

Kyocera: It adopts the unique vertical modeling of traditional cameras with high resolution.

HP: High resolution, wide adaptability and low price.

Konica: A small camera with high resolution and close operation to traditional film.

Minolta: high resolution, the lens -CCD unit can be rotated and separated.

Nikon: Ultra-light and small, high resolution, complete functions and simple operation.

Olympus: SLR camera with high resolution, zoom and non-replaceable lens; Economical and portable.

Panasonic electronics: small, high resolution, mid-range price.

Ricoh: low-cost, rotatable lens, software with special effects.

Toshiba: Economical, high resolution, using SM card.

Akfa: economical and practical, with high resolution and rotatable lens; Seiko Epson: high resolution, panoramic camera function, both memory and removable memory card.

7. The new storage medium "memory stick" came out. Sony introduced a new storage medium "memory stick" to the market in September, 1998. It has two capacities: 4MB MSA-4A and 8MB MSA-8A. Long volume means small and thin, and it is convenient to pull out or insert. Technical features: 10 pin connector, serial interface, maximum writing speed 1.5MB/S, maximum reading speed 2.45MB/S, power supply voltage 2.7-3.6V, average current consumption at work about 45mA, maximum standby time 130mA, and overall size 2/kloc. It weighs about 4 grams.

At the same time, the MSAC—PCI PC card adapter is also introduced.

Sony's new SLR digital camera CyberShoePRODSC—D700 uses a "memory stick" and has a five-fold zoom lens (equivalent to the focal length of 28- 140mm/F2-2.4 of a 35mm camera), 1.5 million pixel CCD and a 2.5-inch display screen, which is rich in functions and suitable for professional use such as photo studios.

8. Price positioning has generally declined. The initial price positioning of Volkswagen digital camera is about US$ 65,438+0,000 yen in the US market and less than 200,000 yen in the Japanese market. At that time, the total pixels of CCD image sensors were generally 300,000-350,000 pixels. By the end of 1998, the price had dropped significantly. For example, the lowest price of Ricoh RDC-4200 digital camera with 3 times zoom of "Megapixel" is $499, while the market price of the same type of camera is about 1997, which shows that the price has dropped greatly in the past year. On the one hand, many products increase functions and improve performance, on the other hand, they reduce price positioning. For example, the DS-330 digital camera launched by fujifilm Company in June 1998 is more convenient to use than the DS-300 camera launched in April 1997, and the price is reduced by 5,000 yen (the catalog price is 6,543,800+0,900 yen); The multi-function triple zoom CooLPIX9 10 camera introduced by Nikon Company198 in June is about 10000 yen lower than that of the C00LPIX900 camera with similar appearance introduced in April of the same year, and the attached CF card is also changed from 4MB to 8MB.

In addition, the capacity of flash memory card, CF card and SM card is increasing, and the price has also dropped a lot. In the American market, the price is about $7-10 per MB, which is about half lower than 1997. (Attachment: CF card: the maximum capacity provided by SanDisk Company of the United States is 48MB；; LexarMedia can provide 4,8, 12,16,24,32 (MB) CF cards. Casio can provide 4, 8, 15, 30 and 48(MB) CF cards. SM card: Toshiba Corporation of Japan, the main manufacturer, can provide the maximum product capacity 16MB. SM cards with four capacities (2,4,8, 16. (MB)) can be provided in the American market.

(4) 1999 —— the year of 2 million pixels1999 is the year when the portable digital camera entered 2 million pixels. The world's major camera manufacturers, photosensitive materials manufacturers, computer peripheral equipment manufacturers and imaging equipment manufacturers, such as Kodak, Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Fuji, Olympus, Ricoh, Agfa, Casio, Sony, Epson, Sanyo, Samsung and other companies have invested heavily in developing digital cameras to seize the commanding heights of digital camera technology development. It occupies a larger share in the expanding digital camera market. In more than a year, 100 digital cameras have been put on the market. However, the market is changing rapidly. Many digital cameras that once caused a sensation in the market have become a thing of the past in a year or two, and they can only withdraw from the historical stage. Only by constantly innovating and having its own characteristics can we keep moving forward.

1999, more than 20 kinds of portable digital cameras with more than 2 million pixels were introduced to the market, each with its own characteristics, representing the progress of the times, such as Canon PowerShotS 10. Kodak DC280, DC290Zoom, Fuji MX-2700, MX-2900 Zoom, PrintCamPR2 1, Nikon Coolpix700, Coolpix800, Coo 1pix950, Olympus C2 1, C-2000 Zoom. Ricoh RDC-5000, Casio QV-2000UX, Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-F55e, Cyber-Shot DSC-F505, Epson PhotoPC800, PhotoPC850, Konica Q-M200, etc. They are all excellent 2MP(MP stands for Megapixel) portable digital cameras.

2. Popularizing the development of digital cameras in 2000. Since the birth of commercial digital cameras, the number of professional cameras is less than 65,438+00 years, and the number of mass cameras is only about 6 years. However, its development speed is amazing. 1998 The focus of new product development of popular cameras is 1 10,000 pixels, and the focus of 1999 has climbed to 2000. In by going up one flight of stairs in 2000, the focus shifted to 3 million pixels (3MP). In June 2000, 10, Olympus launched Camediae- 10 four-fold optical zoom universal digital camera with a total pixel of 4 million, setting a new record in 2000.

(1) Development Hotspots In 2000, the focus of total pixel development was 3 million pixel level (3MP) products, first of all, the QV-3000 EX digital camera launched by Casio Company in February 2002 (with a total pixel number of 3.34 million). By the end of 2000, 1 1 * * 12 companies had introduced more than 20 kinds of 3MP digital cameras.

The focus of lens development is zoom lens. 80% of the new models use zoom lenses. Even for single-lens cameras, most products have digital zoom (also called electronic zoom) function. The maximum magnification of optical zoom is 10 times.

The focus of digital interface development is that the camera adopts USB interface (universal serial bus) or both USB and RS232C interfaces.

(2) New design concept 1. Appearance modeling and external component configuration design are closer to the 35mm camera: When the imaging quality of Volkswagen digital camera and A6 size photos printed are closer to or equal to the traditional 35mm camera, the appearance modeling and external component configuration design of Volkswagen digital camera will naturally be closer to the tried-and-tested traditional 35mm camera, and the usage habits are basically the same. Therefore, almost all well-known digital camera companies have successively designed models similar to the "horizontal rectangular body" of traditional 35mm cameras. Such as PENTAXEI-2000 integrated SLR digital camera and Kodak DC-4800 digital camera.

2. Miniaturized and lightweight new model design: The image sensors used in popular digital cameras are all very small (11.8 inches, 1/2.7 inches, etc. ), and there is no film conveying mechanism necessary for traditional cameras. In addition, the progress of multilayer board manufacturing and surface mounting technology and microelectronic components has created superior conditions for the miniaturization and lightweight of digital cameras. Such as: Fuji FinePix40i machine, volume 85.5mm×7 1mm×28.5mm, weight155g; ; Kodak DC3800 machine, volume 95mm×6 1mm×3 1mm, weight165g; Canon DigitalIxUS machine (2x optical zoom), volume 87mm×57mmx26.9mm, weight190g; ; Finecam3300 machine with high porcelain (2x optical zoom) has a volume of 93.5mm×66mm×37.5mm and a weight of 200g.

3. Design and development of waterproof and dustproof digital cameras: In the past, both Fuji and Konica introduced waterproof and dustproof digital cameras. In 2000, Fuji designed a 1.5 million pixel BigJobDS230HD waterproof and dustproof special machine; The RDC-200 G waterproof and dustproof machine designed by Ricoh has a total pixel of 2.3 million pixels, and its waterproof performance reaches the 7-level protection level specified in Japanese standard (JIS)C0920. In addition, Kodak has also developed a waterproof and dustproof digital camera.

4. Using the same body, design different models of digital cameras:

Using the same fuselage to design different grades and models of digital camera products has become an important method to reduce the production cost of cameras. It not only accelerates the design speed, but also saves the production cost of tooling and dies. For example, Kodak DC260, DC265 and DC290 cameras use the same body; Canon S 10 and S20 also use the same fuselage, but the technical indicators and performance are different.

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 began to develop electronic cameras, and launched their own prototype electronic cameras at 1984- 1986.

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 electronic camera with CMOS sensor.

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.

Nowadays, the battle between CMOS and CCD on the legitimacy 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."