digital cameras, how much do you know? Now, here we will share something about cameras.

1. Compact cameras

Compact digital cameras are designed to be small and portable and are particularly suitable for casual and "snapshot" use, thus are also called point-and-shoot camera. The smallest, generally less than 20 mm thick, are described as subcompacts or "ultra-compacts". Compact cameras are usually designed to be easy to use, sacrificing advanced features and picture quality for compactness and simplicity; images can usually only be stored using lossy compression (JPEG).

Most of them have a built-in flash usually of low power, sufficient for nearby subjects. Live preview is almost always used to frame the photo. They may have limited motion picture capability. Compacts often have macro capability, but if they have zoom capability the range is usually less than for bridge and DSLR cameras. They have a greater depth of field, allowing objects within a large range of distances from the camera to be in sharp focus.

2. Digital single lens reflex cameras

Digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) are digital cameras based on film single-lens reflex cameras (SLR); both types are characterized by the existence of a mirror and reflex system.

3. Bridge cameras

Bridge or SLR-like cameras are higher-end digital cameras that physically resemble DSLR and share with them some advanced features, but share with compacts the framing of the photo using live preview and small sensor sizes.

When digital cameras became common, a question many photographers asked was whether their film cameras could be converted to digital. The answer was yes and no. For the majority of 35 mm film cameras the answer is no, the reworking and cost would be too great, especially as lenses have been evolving as well as cameras. For the most part a conversion to digital, to give enough space for the electronics and allow a liquid crystal display to preview, would require removing the back of the camera and replacing it with a custom built digital unit.

Many early professional SLR cameras, such as the NC2000 and the Kodak DCS series, were developed from 35 mm film cameras. The technology of the time, however, meant that rather than being a digital "backs" the bodies of these cameras were mounted on large, bulky digital units, often bigger than the camera portion itself. These were factory built cameras, however, not aftermarket conversions.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_camera

Editor: Cynthia