What is a camera?
Q: What is a camera?
A: A camera is a device that takes pictures (photographs) using film or electronics to make an image of something.
Q: What is the lens used for?
A: The lens makes the image that the film or electronics "sees".
Q: What are still cameras and movie cameras?
A: A still camera takes one picture at a time, while a movie camera can take pictures that seem to move. If it can take videos it is called a video camera or camcorder.
Q: How does light get into the camera?
A: Light gets into the camera through a hole on one side of the box, which is called the aperture. On the other side is a special material such as film in a film camera or electronic sensor in digital cameras which records the image coming through from the aperture.
Q: What controls how much light enters into the camera?
A: The size of aperture and amount of time that shutter lets light through can be changed to let more or less light enter into the camera. These settings are usually controlled by electronics inside but some cameras allow users to manually adjust them as well.
Q: What type of cameras are most common today?
A: Most common type of cameras today are found on phones, known as "camera phones".
