Photonics Dictionary

A frame taken with a CCD camera over an exposure length of zero seconds with the lens cap on or the shutter closed and no light reaching the sensor. This frame shows the electronic noise in the...

The simplest, most inexpensive type of camera, which is shaped as an oblong or square box, containing the simplest lens, shutter and viewfinder, as well as the most elementary means of registering...

An apparatus, designed for use with a camera, that is used to rapidly open the path from lens to film, to maintain the opening throughout exposure and to close the opening in rapid succession. The...

A light-tight box that receives light from an object or scene and focuses it to form an image on a light-sensitive material or a detector. The camera generally contains a lens of variable aperture...

A frame taken to identify electronic noise in a CCD imaging device. A dark frame is recorded without exposing the CCD to any external light by, for example, leaving the shutter of a CCD camera...

A digital camera is a device that captures and records still images or video in digital format. Unlike traditional film cameras, which use photographic film to capture and store images, digital...

An instrument used to measure the light from a scene to be photographed and to indicate the camera lens and shutter settings required to expose the film correctly. The exposure time required in a...

A shutter having one or more roller blinds of material with a variable slit that moves across the back of the camera when released and exposes the sensitized material progressively.

A high-speed motion camera, also known as a high-speed camera or slow-motion camera, is a specialized imaging device designed to capture fast-moving events or phenomena at extremely high frame rates....

Photography involving the recording of events that occur too fast to be perceived by the human eye or recorded by conventional photographic techniques. See high-speed movie camera; high-speed...

A still camera with a shutter capable of opening for a time as short as a fraction of a microsecond. An electronically operated Kerr cell often is employed.

A machine vision lens is a specialized optical lens designed for use in machine vision systems, which are used for automated inspection, measurement, and quality control in industrial applications....

A camera equipped with a lens and a long length of perforated film, the latter being moved intermittently between exposures by a pulldown claw or sprocket. A rotating shutter serves to cut off the...

Rolling shutter artifacts are distortions or visual anomalies that can occur in images or videos captured by cameras with rolling shutter sensors. A rolling shutter is a type of image sensor that...

A camera with two taking lenses and synchronized shutters. Two images are recorded simultaneously on separate frames, producing a three-dimensional image when viewed through the proper apparatus.

A streak camera is a specialized instrument used to capture and analyze ultrafast phenomena, such as extremely short pulses of light or rapidly changing events. Unlike traditional cameras that...