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How Cameras Work
by Tom Harris
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Cool Camera Stuff Image Gallery

A fully manual single-lens-reflex camera. See more pictures of cool camera stuff.

Photography is undoubtedly one of the most important inventions in history -- it has truly transformed how
people conceive of the world. Now we can "see" all sorts of things that are actually many miles -- and
years -- away from us. Photography lets us capture moments in time and preserve them for years to
come.
The basic technology that makes all of this possible is fairly simple. A still film camera is made of three
basic elements: an optical element (the lens), a chemical element (the film) and a mechanical element
(the camera body itself). As we'll see, the only trick to photography is calibrating and combining these
elements in such a way that they record a crisp, recognizable image.

There are many different ways of bringing everything together. In this article, we'll look at a manual
single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera. This is a camera where the photographer sees exactly the same image
that is exposed to the film and can adjust everything by turning dials and clicking buttons. Since it doesn't
need any electricity to take a picture, a manual SLR camera provides an excellent illustration of the
fundamental processes of photography.
The optical component of the camera is the lens. At its simplest, a lens is just a curved piece of glass or
plastic. Its job is to take the beams of light bouncing off of an object and redirect them so they come
together to form a real image -- an image that looks just like the scene in front of the lens.
But how can a piece of glass do this? The process is actually very simple. As light travels from one
medium to another, it changes speed. Light travels more quickly through air than it does through glass, so
a lens slows it down.
When light waves enter a piece of glass at an angle, one part of the wave will reach the glass before
another and so will start slowing down first. This is something like pushing a shopping cart from pavement
to grass, at an angle. The right wheel hits the grass first and so slows down while the left wheel is still on
the pavement. Because the left wheel is briefly moving more quickly than the right wheel, the shopping
cart turns to the right as it moves onto the grass.

The effect on light is the same -- as it enters the glass at an angle, it bends in one direction. It bends
again when it exits the glass because parts of the light wave enter the air and speed up before other parts
of the wave. In a standard converging, or convexlens, one or both sides of the glass curves out. This
means rays of light passing through will bend toward the center of the lens on entry. In a double convex
lens, such as a magnifying glass, the light will bend when it exits as well as when it enters.

This effectively reverses the path of light from an object. A light source -- say a candle -- emits light in all
directions. The rays of light all start at the same point -- the candle's flame -- and then are constantly
diverging. A converging lens takes those rays and redirects them so they are all converging back to one
point. At the point where the rays converge, you get a real image of the candle. In the next couple of
sections, we'll look at some of the variables that determine how this real image is formed.
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Cameras: Focus
We've seen that a real image is formed by light moving through a convex lens. The nature of this real
image varies depending on how the lighttravels through the lens. This light path depends on two major
factors:

The angle of the light beam's entry into the lens

The structure of the lens

The angle of light entry changes when you move the object closer or farther away from the lens. You
can see this in the diagram below. The light beams from the pencil point enter the lens at a sharper angle
when the pencil is closer to the lens and a more obtuse angle when the pencil is farther away. But overall,

the lens only bends the light beam to a certain total degree, no matter how it enters. Consequently, light
beams that enter at a sharper angle will exit at a more obtuse angle, and vice versa. The total "bending
angle" at any particular point on the lens remains constant.
As you can see, light beams from a closer point converge farther away from the lens than light beams
from a point that's farther away. In other words, the real image of a closer object forms farther away from
the lens than the real image from a more distant object.
You can observe this phenomenon with a simple experiment. Light a candle in the dark, and hold a
magnifying glass between it and the wall. You will see an upside down image of the candle on the wall. If
the real image of the candle does not fall directly on the wall, it will appear somewhat blurry. The light
beams from a particular point don't quite converge at this point. To focus the image, move the magnifying
glass closer or farther away from the candle.

This is what you're doing when you turn the lens of a camera to focus it -- you're moving it closer or
farther away from the film surface. As you move the lens, you can line up the focused real image of an
object so it falls directly on the film surface.
You now know that at any one point, a lens bends light beams to a certain total degree, no matter the light
beam's angle of entry. This total "bending angle" is determined by the structure of the lens.

How Cameras Work

by Tom Harris

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A standard 50 mm lens doesn't significantly shrink or magnify the image.

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Camera Lenses
In the last section, we saw that at any one point, a lens bends light beams to a certain total degree, no
matter the light beam's angle of entry. This total "bending angle" is determined by the structure of the
lens.
A lens with a rounder shape (a center that extends out farther) will have a more acute bending angle.
Basically, curving the lens out increases the distance between different points on the lens. This increases
the amount of time that one part of the light wave is moving faster than another part, so the light makes a
sharper turn.
Increasing the bending angle has an obvious effect. Light beams from a particular point will converge at a
point closer to the lens. In a lens with a flatter shape, light beams will not turn as sharply. Consequently,
the light beams will converge farther away from the lens. To put it another way, the focused real image
forms farther away from the lens when the lens has a flatter surface.
Increasing the distance between the lens and the real image actually increases the total size of the real
image. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. Think of a projector: As you move the projector
farther away from the screen, the image becomes larger. To put it simply, the light beams keep spreading
apart as they travel toward the screen.
The same basic thing happens in a camera. As the distance between the lens and the real image
increases, the light beams spread out more, forming a larger real image. But the size of the film stays
constant. When you attach a very flat lens, it projects a large real image but the film is only exposed to the
middle part of it. Basically, the lens zeroes in on the middle of the frame, magnifying a small section of the
scene in front of you. A rounder lens produces a smaller real image, so the film surface sees a much
wider area of the scene (at reduced magnification).
Professional cameras let you attach different lenses so you can see the scene at various magnifications.
The magnification power of a lens is described by its focal length. In cameras, the focal length is defined
as the distance between the lens and the real image of an object in the far distance (the moon for
example). A higher focal length number indicates a greater image magnification.
Different lenses are suited to different situations. If you're taking a picture of a mountain range, you might
want to use a telephoto lens, a lens with an especially long focal length. This lens lets you zero in on
specific elements in the distance, so you can create tighter compositions. If you're taking a close-up
portrait, you might use a wide-angle lens. This lens has a much shorter focal length, so it shrinks the
scene in front of you. The entire face is exposed to the film even if the subject is only a foot away from the

camera. A standard 50 mm camera lens doesn't significantly magnify or shrink the image, making it ideal
for shooting objects that aren't especially close or far away.
LENSES IN THE LENS

A camera lens is actually several lenses combined into one unit. A single converging lens could form a
real image on the film, but it would be warped by a number of aberrations.
One of the most significant warping factors is that different colors of light bend differently when moving
through a lens. This chromatic aberration essentially produces an image where the colors are not lined
up correctly.
Cameras compensate for this using several lenses made of different materials. The lenses each handle
colors differently, and when you combine them in a certain way, the colors are realigned.
In a zoom lens, you can move different lens elements back and forth. By changing the distance between
particular lenses, you can adjust the magnification power -- the focal length -- of the lens as a whole.

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WHAT'S IN A NAME?
As it turns out, the term photography describes the photographic process quite accurately. Sir John Herschel, a 19th
century astronomer and one of the first photographers, came up with the term in 1839. The term is a combination of
two Greek words --photos meaning light and graphein meaning writing (or drawing). The term camera comes
from camera obscura, Latin for "dark room." The camera obscura was actually invented hundreds of years before
photography. A traditional camera obscura was a dark room with light shining through a lens or tiny hole in the wall.
Light passed through the hole, forming an upside-down real image on the opposite wall. This effect was very popular
with artists, scientists and curious spectators.
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Cameras: Recording Light

The chemical component in a traditional camera isfilm. Essentially, when you expose film to a real
image, it makes a chemical record of the pattern of light.
It does this with a collection of tiny light-sensitive grains, spread out in a chemical suspension on a strip of
plastic. When exposed to light, the grains undergo a chemical reaction.
Once the roll is finished, the film is developed -- it is exposed to other chemicals, which react with the
light-sensitive grains. In black and white film, the developer chemicals darken the grains that were
exposed to light. This produces a negative, where lighter areas appear darker and darker areas appear
lighter, which is then converted into a positive image in printing.
Color film has three different layers of light-sensitive materials, which respond, in turn, to red, green and
blue. When the film is developed, these layers are exposed to chemicals that dye the layers of film. When
you overlay the color information from all three layers, you get a full-color negative.

For an in-depth description of this entire process, check out How Photographic Film Works.
So far, we've looked at the basic idea of photography -- you create a real image with a converging lens,
and you record the light pattern of this real image on a layer of light-sensitive material. Conceptually, this
is all that's involved in taking a picture. But to capture a clear image, you have to carefully control how
everything comes together.
Obviously, if you were to lay a piece of film on the ground and focus a real image onto it with a converging
lens, you wouldn't get any kind of usable picture. Out in the open, every grain in the film would be
completely exposed to light. And without any contrasting unexposed areas, there's no picture.
To capture an image, you have to keep the film in complete darkness until it's time to take the picture.
Then, when you want to record an image, you let some light in. At its most basic level, this is all the body
of a camera is -- a sealed box with a shutter that opens and closes between the lens and film. In fact, the
term camera is shortened from camera obscura, literally "dark room" in Latin.
For the picture to come out right, you have to precisely control how much light hits the film. If you let too
much light in, too many grains will react, and the picture will appear washed out. If you don't let enough
light hit the film, too few grains will react, and the picture will be too dark. In the next section, we'll look at
the different camera mechanisms that let you adjust the exposure.

Home /

Tech /

Electronics /

Cameras & Photography /

Camera Basics

How Cameras Work

by Tom Harris

Page
1
2

 3
4

Cameras: Focus
We've seen that a real image is formed by light moving through a convex lens. The nature of this real
image varies depending on how the lighttravels through the lens. This light path depends on two major
factors:

The angle of the light beam's entry into the lens

The structure of the lens

The angle of light entry changes when you move the object closer or farther away from the lens. You
can see this in the diagram below. The light beams from the pencil point enter the lens at a sharper angle
when the pencil is closer to the lens and a more obtuse angle when the pencil is farther away. But overall,
the lens only bends the light beam to a certain total degree, no matter how it enters. Consequently, light
beams that enter at a sharper angle will exit at a more obtuse angle, and vice versa. The total "bending
angle" at any particular point on the lens remains constant.

As you can see, light beams from a closer point converge farther away from the lens than light beams
from a point that's farther away. In other words, the real image of a closer object forms farther away from
the lens than the real image from a more distant object.
You can observe this phenomenon with a simple experiment. Light a candle in the dark, and hold a
magnifying glass between it and the wall. You will see an upside down image of the candle on the wall. If
the real image of the candle does not fall directly on the wall, it will appear somewhat blurry. The light
beams from a particular point don't quite converge at this point. To focus the image, move the magnifying
glass closer or farther away from the candle.

This is what you're doing when you turn the lens of a camera to focus it -- you're moving it closer or
farther away from the film surface. As you move the lens, you can line up the focused real image of an
object so it falls directly on the film surface.
You now know that at any one point, a lens bends light beams to a certain total degree, no matter the light
beam's angle of entry. This total "bending angle" is determined by the structure of the lens.

Cameras: Recording Light

The chemical component in a traditional camera isfilm. Essentially, when you expose film to a real
image, it makes a chemical record of the pattern of light.
It does this with a collection of tiny light-sensitive grains, spread out in a chemical suspension on a strip of
plastic. When exposed to light, the grains undergo a chemical reaction.
Once the roll is finished, the film is developed -- it is exposed to other chemicals, which react with the
light-sensitive grains. In black and white film, the developer chemicals darken the grains that were

exposed to light. This produces a negative, where lighter areas appear darker and darker areas appear
lighter, which is then converted into a positive image in printing.
Color film has three different layers of light-sensitive materials, which respond, in turn, to red, green and
blue. When the film is developed, these layers are exposed to chemicals that dye the layers of film. When
you overlay the color information from all three layers, you get a full-color negative.
For an in-depth description of this entire process, check out How Photographic Film Works.
So far, we've looked at the basic idea of photography -- you create a real image with a converging lens,
and you record the light pattern of this real image on a layer of light-sensitive material. Conceptually, this
is all that's involved in taking a picture. But to capture a clear image, you have to carefully control how
everything comes together.
Obviously, if you were to lay a piece of film on the ground and focus a real image onto it with a converging
lens, you wouldn't get any kind of usable picture. Out in the open, every grain in the film would be
completely exposed to light. And without any contrasting unexposed areas, there's no picture.
To capture an image, you have to keep the film in complete darkness until it's time to take the picture.
Then, when you want to record an image, you let some light in. At its most basic level, this is all the body
of a camera is -- a sealed box with a shutter that opens and closes between the lens and film. In fact, the
term camera is shortened from camera obscura, literally "dark room" in Latin.
For the picture to come out right, you have to precisely control how much light hits the film. If you let too
much light in, too many grains will react, and the picture will appear washed out. If you don't let enough
light hit the film, too few grains will react, and the picture will be too dark. In the next section, we'll look at
the different camera mechanisms that let you adjust the exposure.

How Cameras Work

by Tom Harris

Page
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4
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The plates in the iris diaphragm fold in on each other to shrink the aperture and expand out to make it wider.

Cameras: The Right Light

In the last section, we saw that you need to carefully control the film's exposure to light, or your picture
will come out too dark or too bright. So how do you adjust this exposure level? You have to consider two
major factors:

How much light is passing through the lens

How long the film is exposed

To increase or decrease the amount of light passing through the lens, you have to change the size of
theaperture -- the lens opening. This is the job of the iris diaphragm, a series of overlapping metal
plates that can fold in on each other or expand out. Essentially, this mechanism works the same way as
the iris in your eye -- it opens or closes in a circle, to shrink or expand the diameter of the lens. When the
lens is smaller, it captures less light, and when it is larger, it captures more light.
The length of exposure is determined by the shutter speed. Most SLR cameras use a focal plane
shutter. This mechanism is very simple -- it basically consists of two "curtains" between the lens and the
film. Before you take a picture, the first curtain is closed, so the film won't be exposed to light. When you
take the picture, this curtain slides open. After a certain amount of time, the second curtain slides in from
the other side, to stop the exposure.
When you click the camera's shutter release, the first curtain slides open, exposing the film. After
a certain amount of time, the second shutter slides closed, ending the exposure. The time delay is
controlled by the camera's shutter speed knob.
When you click the camera's shutter release, the first curtain slides open, exposing the film. After
a certain amount of time, the second shutter slides closed, ending the exposure. The time delay is
controlled by the camera's shutter speed knob.

This simple action is controlled by a complex mass of gears, switches and springs, like you might find
inside a watch. When you hit the shutter button, it releases a lever, which sets several gears in motion.
You can tighten or loosen some of the springs by turning the shutter speed knob. This adjusts the gear
mechanism, increasing or decreasing the delay between the first curtain opening and the second curtain
closing. When you set the knob to a very slow shutter speed, the shutter is open for a very long time.
When you set the knob to a very high speed, the second curtain follows directly behind the first curtain, so
only a tiny slit of the film frame is exposed at any one time.
The ideal exposure depends on the size of the light-sensitive grains in the film. A larger grain is more
likely to absorb light photons than a smaller grain. The size of the grains is indicated by a film's speed,
which is printed on the canister. Different film speeds are suited to different types of photography -- 100
ISO film, for example, is optimal for shots in bright sunlight, while 1600 film should only be used in
relatively low light.

Inside a manual SLR camera, you'll find an intricate puzzle of gears and springs. Click on each picture for a highresolution close-up shot.

As you can see, there's a lot involved in getting the exposure right -- you have to balance film speed,
aperture size and shutter speed to fit the light level in your shot. Manual SLR cameras have a built-in light
meter to help you do this. The main component of the light meter is a panel of semi-conductor light
sensors that are sensitive to light energy. These sensors express this light energy as electrical energy,
which the light meter system interprets based on the film and shutter speed.
Now, let's see how an SLR camera body directs the real image to the viewfinder before you take the shot,
and then directs it to the film when you press the shutter button.