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Before an actual image is recorded, a number of measurements are taken by the camera as you press on the shutter release. It figures out the focus to ensure a sharp image, and it measures the available light to determine the aperture (a hole within the lens, which size can be adjusted) and shutter speed needed to record the image.

When you press the shutter release all the way, here's where the magic begins. The aperture would jump to whatever setting the camera (or you) decided to use, and the shutter opens to allow light to reach the sensor.

The time the shutter remains open (ie. shutter speed) and the size of the aperture will both determine how much light reaches the sensor. For example, your camera would need a larger aperture and longer time to record an image in a dim room (the latter is the reason why photos taken in the dark without flash tends to be blurry. Your hands would be shaking the whole time and the camera records all that motion) compared to broad daylight.

The sensor itself is either a CCD (Couple-Charged Device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) microchip. What this means is unimportant.

These sensors are made of an array of tiny squares, usually blue, green and red arranged into a mosaic pattern, called pixels. Of course, there are exceptions (like Fuji, which have hexagonal pixels in some of their camera sensors, and Sigma, which stacks all three colours instead of arranging them side-by-side).

You can think light as very tiny packets of energy. A stream of packets of energy. These packets are called photons. When they hit a pixel, it creates a small electrical current is generated. The more light, the more current. These electrical signals are amplified (to make the signal stronger) and are converted into digital signals by the ADC (Analog/Digital Converter).

Once that's done, a microprocessor processes your image. It sharpens the image, increases the contrast, maybe make it black and white if you like, and perhaps add a date stamp. The processes here are many and varied, but it ends with packaging the file into a smaller size (usually a JPEG file) and sends it to the memory card. You can now switch to playback mode, show it to your friends, and laugh at how silly you look during that last Halloween party.

Some cameras (typically more expensive ones) also have a separate, small, temporary, but very fast memory called buffer memory. It stores the image while its slowly being recorded into the memory card, so you can shoot another picture right away instead of waiting for it to finish recording. Sports photographers are especially dependant on this feature to record the heat of the action, often at anywhere between 5 to 10 pictures EACH SECOND!

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16y ago

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