Digital camera

Digital cameras have only optical elements like the lenses in common with traditional analog cameras. They use a optoelectronic chip (CCD) instead of a film. The lense projects the picture onto the CCD. The signals for brightness and colour of each singular smallest unit of the chip (pixel) are transfered into a digital memory device. Each digital picture is a file oft these pixelwise informations. Usually a little one-chip-computer takes control of such a camera. This computer changes the raw picture file's format into a compressed file format, for example the JPEG-Format. Some cameras offer an option to let the camera store the raw data instead.