Polaroid Cameras I brochure

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shutter button and lens are virtually the only parts of the camera that remain in digital cameras.

The film has been replaced with a light sensitive chip, called a Charge Coupled Device (CCD). This chip is an array of millions elements that are sensitive to light. When light hits an element in the CCD array, a electrical charge is accumulated at a rate determined by the amount of light striking it. This charge is then measured by an analog to digital converter that converts the voltage to a digital value that can be stored in memory. The raw image derived from the CCD is too big to store. The camera contains a specialized chip know as the compression engine, which takes the raw image and compresses it to a size that can be stored on the memory card. This compression reduces the overall storage requirement by a factor of 3 to 16.

This is a block diagram of a camera from the Texas Instrument web site (www.ti.com). They want designers to use their integrated circuits, so they supply much of the design for the camera.

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Contents Why Digital? Cameras Basic operation and featuresElements of a digital camera Why now?Page Page What the heck is a megapixel? MegapixelMegapixel 4064 x Page Zoom Optical required, Digital only is not acceptable Low resolution applicationsMemory cards LCD screenCompression What is a JPEG? Lenses Big/Small Rugged/FragileCleaning the lens of a camera Digital camera flashUSB The connection from the camera to the computer Digital camera software What can you do with photo editing software? Photo restoration File types BatteriesJpg Page Some other common features on many cameras Some cameras have this settingPutting it all together Page Printing at the digital kiosk Addendum Copyright law Discussion questions on ethicsDiscussion questions on copyrights Zoom Checklist MegapixelsFeature/Mode Select Features common to most camerasPage Space Shuttle Camera Computer Addendum 2 Digital cameras versus the Space Shuttle