Chapter 11 - Digital Imaging—Cameras and Camcorders

Abstract

This chapter focuses on two distinct types of camera devices—namely, the digital still camera and the digital camcorder. Digital still cameras are one of the most popular consumer devices at the forefront of today's digital convergence. They enable instantaneous image capture, support a variety of digital file formats, and can interoperate through an ever-growing variety of communications links. With the Internet providing the superhighway to disseminate information instantaneously, digital images are now at virtually everyone's fingertips. From e-mail to desktop publishing, captured digital images are becoming pervasive. The digital camera market is currently in the midst of unprecedented growth. The segments include entry-level models up through 5 MP (megapixel) point-and-shoot models. Digital camcorders are also used for instantaneous image capturing. There are two categories of camcorder models—namely, analog or digital. Analog camcorders record video and audio signals as an analog track on videotape. This means that every time a copy of a tape is made, it loses some image and audio quality. Analog formats lack a number of the impressive features that are available in digital camcorders. Digital camcorders differ from analog camcorders in a few very important ways. They record information digitally as bytes—that is, the image can be reproduced without losing any image or audio quality.