Sound Recording Solutions
Sound Card Recorder
Powerful voice activated microphone recorder for Windows. Click here to learn more.Digital Camera
A digital camera, is an electronic device used to capture a picture and store it in an electronic format. (Instead of using film.) Modern compact digital cameras are typically multifunctional, with some devices cabable of taking photographs, video, and/or sound. 2005 saw a dramatic increase in consumer adoption of digital cameras as opposed to 35mm film cameras. North American sales of their digital counterpart exceeded, for the first time in history, sales of film cameras. Professional video cameras such as those used in television and movie production. These typically have multiple image sensors (one per color) to enhance resolution and color gamut. Professional video cameras usually do not have a built-in VCR or microphone. Camcorders used by amateurs. They generally include a microphone to record sound, and feature a small LCD to watch the video during taping and playback. Webcams are digital cameras attached to computers, used for video conferencing or other purposes. Webcams can capture full-motion video as well, and some models include microphones or zoom ability. In addition, many still digital cameras have a "movie" mode, in which images are continuously acquired at a frame rate sufficient for video. Digital still cameras are cameras whose primary purpose is to capture photography in a digital format. Initially, a digital camera was characterized by the use of flash memory and USB or FireWire for storage and transfer of still photographs (though some early cameras used a serial port connection), and this is still the common meaning of the unadorned term. However, modern digital photography cameras have a video function, and a growing number of camcorders have a still photography function. In addition, some newer camcorders record video directly to flash memory and transfer over USB and FireWire. Among digital still cameras, most have a rear LCD for reviewing photographs. They are rated in megapixels; that is, the product of their maximum resolution dimensions in millions. The actual transfers to a host computer are commonly carried out using the USB mass storage device class (so that the camera appear as a drive) or using the Picture Transfer Protocol and its derivatives. All use either a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) or a CMOS sensor, i.e. chips comprised of a grid of phototransistors to sense the light intensities across the plane of focus of the camera lens. CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensors are differentiated from CCDs proper in that it uses less power and a different kind of light sensing material, however the differences are highly technical and many manufacturers still consider the CMOS chip a charged coupled device. For our purposes, a chip sensor is a CCD. Standard Digital Cameras (also called compact digital cameras or digicams): This encompasses most digital cameras. They are characterized by great ease in operation and easy focusing; this design allows for limited motion picture capability. They have an extended depth of field. This allows objects at multiple depths to be in focus simultaneously, which accounts for much of their ease of focusing. It is also part of the reason professional photographers find their images flat or artificial-looking. They excel in landscape photography and casual use. The typical file format they save pictures in is JPEG. "Prosumer" Cameras are a general group of higher end cameras that physically resemble SLR "professional" cameras and share some features, but are still geared towards consumers. These cameras tend to have a large optical zoom lens, which compromises a "do it all" ability with barrel distortion and pincushioning. Prosumer cameras are often marketed as and confused with digital SLR cameras. The distinguishing characteristics are they do not have a removeable lens, can take movies, and scene composition is done with either the LCD display or the EVF (Electronic Viewfinder). The overall performance tends to be slower than a true digital SLR, but they are capable of good image quality. Many of the these cameras can save in JPEG or RAW format. Digital Single-Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLR) are intended for use by professional photographers and thus externally resemble film cameras. The two main features of a DSLR is they have removeable lenses and the image compositing is done through the viewfinder using a mirror-reflected image identical to the single-lens reflex system in film cameras. A few early SLR cameras (the Olympus E-10 being one) did not have removable lenses. DSLR cameras have larger sensors than compacts or prosumers, and thus higher sensivity in dim lighting and less noise overall in the pictures they take. They are also bulkier and frequently much more expensive than their casual-use oriented counterparts. The ability to change lenses gives the same benefits as in film cameras, namely tailoring a lens to an intended use instead of a compromise. Often they use the same or similar lenses as their film counterparts, with the caveat that since the sensor is smaller than 35mm film the lens has an added zoom effect, the ratio typically around 1.3 to 1.5 times more than film. DLSR cameras usually have an "instant-on" ability and the autofocus and general performance is much faster than compact cameras. Two characteristics many consumers are surprised to find is DSLR's do not take movies and the LCD screen is only for reviewing pictures. All compositing is done by the optical viewfinder, which is clearer than an LCD based EVF, although as of 2006 there may be one DSLR that does use the LCD for a live preview. They are superb for portraiture and artistic photography, and virtually all of them can save in JPEG and RAW format. Image color or resolution interpolation is used unless the camera uses a beam splitter single-shot approach, three-filter multi-shot approach, or Foveon X3 sensor currently used in Sigma SD10 DSLR and Polaroid x530 point and shoot. The software specific to the camera interprets the information from the sensor to obtain a full color image. This is because in digital images, each pixel must have three values for luminous intensity, one each for the red, green, and blue channels. A normal sensor element cannot simultaneously record these three values. The Bayer filter pattern is typically used. A Bayer filter pattern is a 2x2 pattern of light filters, with green ones at opposite corners and red and blue elsewhere. The high proportion of green takes advantage of properties of the human visual system, which determines brightness mostly from green and is far more sensitive to brightness than to hue or saturation. Sometimes a 4-color filter pattern is used, often involving 2 different hues of green. This provides a wider color gamut, but requires a slightly more complicated interpolation process. The luminous intensity color values not captured for each pixel can be interpolated (or guessed at) from the values of adjacent pixels which represent the color being calculated. In some cases, extra resolution is interpolated into the image by shifting photosites off of a standard grid pattern so that photosites are adjacent to each other at 45 degree angles, and all three values are interpolated for "virtual" photosites which fall into the spaces at 90 degree angles from the actual photosites. Common formats for digital camera images are the Joint Photography Experts Group standard (JPEG) and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). RAW is somewhat confusing to novices as it describes a general group of formats rather than a single file type. A RAW image is one that captures the data directly as it comes from the sensor, with no post-processing. The Nikon RAW format is NEF, while Minolta is MRW. RAW files can be processed in specialized image editing programs and allows much more flexibility in settings such as white balance, exposure compensation, color temperature, and so on. In essence it lets the photographer make major adjustments without losing image quality that would otherwise require retaking the picture. Formats for movies are AVI, DV, MPEG, MOV, WMV, and ASF (basically the same as WMV). Other formats that are used in cameras but not for pictures are the Design Rule for Camera Format (DCF), an ISO specification for the camera's internal file structure and naming, Digital Print Order Format (DPOF), which dictates what order images are to be printed in and how many copies, and the Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF), which uses metadata tags to document the camera settings and date and time for image files.
Phone Call Recorder
Must have software for voice modem. Record all phone calls automatically, watch Caller ID information, create you own powerful answering machine. Perfect sound quality. Click here to learn more.3d audio effect - 3gp - a-law - aac - acm - adc - aiff - aliasing - amplifier - amr-wb - amr-wb plus - amr - apev2 tag - asf - atrac - audio codec - audio compression - avi - bitrate - bitrate peeling - chord - codec - comfort noise - compact audio cassette - compact disc - compression - compression artifact - compression ratio - contact microphone - container format - dab - data compression - digital audio - digital camera - divx - dolby digital - dolby digital plus - dsp - dvd-audio - dvd - effects unit - equalization - ffmpeg - flanging - fourcc - frequency spectrum - hi-fi - high-end audio - hiln - id3 - joint stereo - laser microphone - line level - lossy - loudspeaker - matroska - mcf - microphone - midi - mixing console - mp2 - mp3 - mp3 surround - mp3 sx - mp3pro - mp4 - mpeg-1 - mpeg-21 - mpeg-3 - mpeg-4 - mpeg-7 - mpeg - mu-law - musepack - music - mxf - nut - osm - parabolic microphone - pcm - perception - phonograph - pink noise - pqf - psychoacoustics - qdesign - quadraphonic - radio receiver - ratdvd - realaudio - red noise - reverberation - rhythm - ribbon microphone - riff - rmvb - sbr - signal processing - sound - sound card - sound effects - sound recording - spdif - speech encoding - speech recognition - speex - stereo - subwoofer - surround sound - synthesizer - tape recorder - tdm - tweeter - video - video compression - vob - voice analysis - vorbis - wav - white noise - wma - woofer