ABSTRACT
This chapter takes you from the lens alone to the camera as a whole. It explains the main camera
components, and shows how – put together in different combinations – they make up today’s
mainstream camera designs. It also compares the advantages and disadvantages of various camera
types. This chapter and Chapter 5 concentrate on film cameras, and much of the information
here is also valid when you are using a digital camera. Plenty of ‘front end’ components such
as viewfinder, auto-focusing, zoom lens and built-in flash are common to both kinds of camera
(Figure 4.1). (Chapter 6 discusses features unique to cameras recording by digital means.)
When you look at most modern equipment it’s hard to believe that a camera is basically
a box with a lens at the front and some form of light-sensitive surface at the back. Yet the first
cameras were just that – wooden boxes put together by the local carpenter. A simple lens (often
a telescope objective) was mounted over a hole at the front, and a holder for chemically coated
material was arranged to fit into the other end (Figure 4.2).
