Digital cameras continue to improve in terms of resolution quality, connectivity and functionality, pleasing both amateur shutterbugs and photography aficionados. Digital cameras have also emerged as a vital tool for user-created content.
Rapid progress in digital technology has not only freed photographers from the hassles and cost of using film, but also allows them to experiment with and edit images. For most consumers, pocket-sized, point-and-shoot digital cameras have the power and performance to take great pictures. Major players in the $34 billion digital camera market include Canon, Sony, Eastman Kodak, Olympus, Samsung, and Nikon. Let's have a look at how these gadgets are manufactured.
Design
Like all other consumer-electronic devices, the look and feel of digital cameras often determines whether the device really clicks with consumers. One critical goal is an easy-to-handle user interface that lures new customers. Product planners, designers, programmers and engineers brainstorm day after day to come up with new design concepts. Two big goals these days are longer battery life and the ability to quickly take multiple shots.
Casting Process
Once a new design concept for a digital camera has been decided, engineers use computers and robots to design and make castings for plastic, aluminum and titanium parts as well as casings for the camera. Here, an engineer is monitoring the completely automated process of manufacturing castings for plastic parts.
Lens Crafting
Professionals and serious amateurs use digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras like Nikon's D80 or the Canon Digital Rebel family, geared to specialized photography. Users can change lenses to focus on faraway details, capture action, or shoot broad landscapes. Even for small point-and-shoot cameras, the lens is the most critical part. Lenses are carved from heated glass.
Lens Barrel Fitting
Once a lens is properly coated, it will be fitted into a lens barrel, which gives a digital camera optical-zoom capabilities. Images captured through the lens barrel are conveyed to image sensors, which then are shown on a liquid crystal display.
Rapid progress in digital technology has not only freed photographers from the hassles and cost of using film, but also allows them to experiment with and edit images. For most consumers, pocket-sized, point-and-shoot digital cameras have the power and performance to take great pictures. Major players in the $34 billion digital camera market include Canon, Sony, Eastman Kodak, Olympus, Samsung, and Nikon. Let's have a look at how these gadgets are manufactured.
Design
Like all other consumer-electronic devices, the look and feel of digital cameras often determines whether the device really clicks with consumers. One critical goal is an easy-to-handle user interface that lures new customers. Product planners, designers, programmers and engineers brainstorm day after day to come up with new design concepts. Two big goals these days are longer battery life and the ability to quickly take multiple shots.
Casting Process
Once a new design concept for a digital camera has been decided, engineers use computers and robots to design and make castings for plastic, aluminum and titanium parts as well as casings for the camera. Here, an engineer is monitoring the completely automated process of manufacturing castings for plastic parts.
Lens Crafting
Professionals and serious amateurs use digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras like Nikon's D80 or the Canon Digital Rebel family, geared to specialized photography. Users can change lenses to focus on faraway details, capture action, or shoot broad landscapes. Even for small point-and-shoot cameras, the lens is the most critical part. Lenses are carved from heated glass.
Lens Barrel Fitting
Once a lens is properly coated, it will be fitted into a lens barrel, which gives a digital camera optical-zoom capabilities. Images captured through the lens barrel are conveyed to image sensors, which then are shown on a liquid crystal display.
