A camera is a device used in photography for capturing photographic pictures or television pictures. The camera as we know it was originally known as the camera obscura, a device used for both projecting images on to paper for sketching, and on to sensitised paper for photography, in distinction from the camera lucida, which was a similar, portable device without an enclosed box, used solely for projecting an image on to paper for sketching.
Photographic cameras have been produced in a variety of forms, but the basic principal remains the same. A fast opening and closing flap, called a shutter, allows light to enter the body of the camera through a small hole, called the aperture, and fall upon a light sensitive medium; originally a paper, glass or plastic material impregnared with some chemical such as silver iodide, later an electronic light sensor.
Photographic cameras are divided into several types: compact, single lensreflex (SLR) and medium format being the most common. Compact cameras are generally simple to operate devices used to capture low quality, domestic photographs to serve as reminders of events. SLR cameras have lots of adjustable settings and detachable lenses to allow a multitude of different lenses to be fitted for long distance and close-up photography and are widely used by professional photographers. Medium format cameras use a relatively large light sensitive medium to produce very high quality large prints, and are sometimes used by portrait photographers. Research Camera
Abbreviations
SciTech
Research Camera