Digital Camera

 Conventional cameras vs. digital cameras

 Understanding the basic
 Image sensors
 Resolution
 Capturing color
 Pixels
 Conventional Camera vs. Digital Camera
 Conventional film camera:
 Basic elements
 an optical element (the lens)
 a chemical element (the film)
 a mechanical element (the camera body itself)
 Process the film chemically
 Print it onto photographic paper

 Digital Camera
 Basic elements
 An optical element (the lens)
 A semiconductor device that records light electronically
 Removable storage device
 A mechanical element (the camera body itself)
 A computer then breaks this electronic information down into digital data
 You can view the result immediately
 Print it onto photographic paper via printer
 Send and store the images digitally
 Understand the Basic
 Image Sensors
 A collection of tiny light-sensitive diodes.
 Diodes convert photons (light) into electrons
(electrical charge).
 These diodes are called photosites.
 In a nutshell, each photosite is sensitive to light --
the brighter the light that hits a single photosite,
the greater the electrical charge that will
accumulate at that site.
A CMOS image sensor

A diode is the simplest

possible semiconductor
device. A diode allows
current to flow in one
direction but not the
other.
Kodak’s CCD
 Image Sensors
 Most common types of image sensors are
 Charge Coupled Device (CCD)
 Complementary Metal oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)

 Convert light into electrons at the photosites. Think of it as having a 2-D array of
thousands or millions of tiny solar cells, each of which transforms the light from
one small portion of the image into electrons.

 Both CCD and CMOS devices perform this task using a variety of technologies.

 The next step is to read the value (accumulated charge) of each cell in the
image.

 In a CCD device, the charge is actually transported across the chip and read at
one corner of the array. An analog-to-digital converter turns each pixel's value
into a digital value.

 In most CMOS devices, there are several transistors at each pixel that amplify
and move the charge using more traditional wires. The CMOS approach is
more flexible because each pixel can be read individually.
 CCDs use a special manufacturing process to create the ability to transport
charge across the chip without distortion. This process leads to very high-
quality sensors in terms of fidelity and light sensitivity.
CCD Structure
CMOS STRUCTURE
Difference between CCD and CMOS
 Because each pixel on a  CCD sensors create high-
CMOS sensor has several quality, low-noise images.
transistors located next to it, CMOS sensors are
the light sensitivity of a CMOS generally more
chip is lower. Many of the
photons hit the transistors susceptible to noise.
instead of the photodiode.
 CCD sensors have been
 CMOS sensors traditionally mass produced for a
consume little power. CCDs, longer period of time, so
on the other hand, use a they are more mature.
process that consumes lots of They tend to have higher
power. CCDs consume as
much as 100 times more
quality pixels, and more of
power than an equivalent them.
CMOS sensor.
 Digitize Information
 The light is converted to electrical charge; but the electrical
charges that build up in the CCD are not digital signals that are
ready to be used by your computer.

 In order to digitize the information, the signal must be passed

through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC).

 Think of each photosite as a bucket or a well, and think of the

photons of light as raindrops. As the raindrops fall into the bucket,
water accumulates (in reality, electrical charge accumulates).
 Some buckets have more water and some buckets have less
water, representing brighter and darker sections of the image.
 Sticking to the analogy, the ADC measures the depth of the water,
which is considered analog information. Then it converts that
information to binary form.
 Digitizing Process
The Digitizing Process

Raindrops = Photons of Light

Filter 135 66 85
Bucket 38 120 92
= CCD
71 48 216

ADC –
Analog-to-digital
Converter
to convert raindrop
(light) amount to
digital info
 RESOLUTION

 The amount of detail that the camera can capture

is called the resolution.

 It is measured in pixels.

 The more pixels the camera has, the more detail it

can capture.
 Capturing Color
 Each photosite is colorblind.

 It only keeps track of the total intensity of the light that

strikes its surface.

 In order to get a full color image, most sensors use

filtering to look at the light in its three primary colors.

 Once all three colors have been recorded, they can be

added together to create the full spectrum of colors that
you've grown accustomed to seeing on computer
monitors and color printers.
 Capturing Color

 There are several ways of recording the three colors in a digital

camera.

 The highest quality cameras use three separate sensors, each with a
different filter over it.
 Split Beam
 Spinning Disk
 Interpolation
 Bayer Filter Pattern
 Demosaicing Algorithms

 Most consumer cameras on the market today use a single sensor

with alternating rows of green/red and green/blue filters (Bayer Filter
Pattern).
 Exposure & Focus
 Aperture: The size of the opening in the
camera. The aperture is automatic in most digital
cameras, but some allow manual adjustment to
give professionals and hobbyists more control
over the final image.
 Shutter speed: The amount of time that light
can pass through the aperture. Unlike film, the
light sensor in a digital camera can be reset
electronically, so digital cameras have a digital
shutter rather than a mechanical shutter
 Focal Length
 The distance between the lens and the surface of the
sensor
 This determines the magnification (zoom)
 Increasing the focal length increases the zoom /
magnification and vice versa
 Digital Camera Lenses
 Fixed-focus, fixed-zoom lenses - These
are the kinds of lenses on disposable and
inexpensive film cameras -- inexpensive
and great for snapshots, but fairly limited.
 Digital Camera Lenses
 Optical-zoom lenses with automatic
focus –

 Similar to the lens on a video camcorder, these

have "wide" and "telephoto" options and
automatic focus. The camera may or may not
support manual focus. These actually change
the focal length of the lens rather than just
magnifying the information that hits the sensor.
 Digital Camera Lenses
 Digital-zoom lenses -

With digital zoom, the camera takes pixels from the

center of the image sensor and interpolates them to
make a full-sized image. Depending on the resolution of
the image and the sensor, this approach may create a
grainy or fuzzy image. You can manually do the same
thing with image processing software -- simply snap a
picture, cut out the center and magnify it.
 Storage
 Early generations of digital cameras had
fixed storage inside the camera.
Today's cameras are capable of connecting
through serial, parallel, SCSI, USB or
FireWire connections
 They usually also use some sort of
removable storage device.
 Pixels and Resolution
 Pixels and Resolution
 256x256 pixels – 65K total pixels. Very cheap cameras.
Picture quality is almost always unacceptable.

 640x480 pixels – 307K total pixels. Low end on most "real"

cameras. Great for e-mail and/or post them on a Web site.

 1216x912 pixels – 1.1M total pixels. Good resolution for

printing images.

 1600x1200 pixels – 1.9M total pixels. “High resolution“ for

printing larger sizes, such as 8x10 inches. You can find
cameras today with up to 10.2 million pixels.
 Image Storage
 The two main file formats used by digital cameras are TIFF and
JPEG.
 TIFF is an uncompressed format and JPEG is a compressed
format.
 Most cameras use the JPEG file format for storing pictures,
and they sometimes offer quality settings (such as medium or
high).
 The following chart will give you an idea of the file sizes you
might expect with different picture sizes.
Image Size TIFF JPEG JPEG
(uncompressed) (high quality) (medium
quality)
640x480 1.0 MB 300 KB 90 KB
800x600 1.5 MB 500 KB 130 KB
1024x768 2.5 MB 800 KB 200 KB
1600x1200 6.0 MB 1.7 MB 420 KB
 Image Storage

Camera Type File Size* 32MB 64MB 128MB 256MB 512MB 1GB 2GB
2 megapixel 900Kb 35 71 142 284 568 1137 2274
3 megapixel 1.2MB 26 53 106 213 426 853 1706
4 megapixel 2.0MB 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024
5 megapixel 2.5MB 12 25 51 102 204 409 818
6 megapixel 3.2MB 10 20 40 80 160 320 640
8 megapixel 3.5MB 9 18 36 73 146 292 585

The number showed on each cell indicate the images you can save with the memory card.

MB = Megabytes, GB = Gigabytes

* Average file size using cameras highest resolution JPEG mode. The actual number of images per card
will vary and depends on the camera model and compatibility of the scene being photographed.