Gadget Savvy: Digital Cameras Quiz

By: Staff
Image: refer to hsw

About This Quiz

Digital cameras have helped make photography easier and faster for millions of people, but how much do you really know about them? Take our quiz to find out!

Digital images are made of tiny dots called:

The dots that make up a digital image are called pixels. The number of pixels correspond with an image's resolution -- more pixels means greater resolution.

What two companies sold the first consumer-oriented digital cameras?

In 1994, Apple and Kodak offered the first digital cameras on the consumer market. Today, you can find digital cameras from dozens of manufacturers.

What kind of image sensor do most digital cameras use?

Most digital cameras use charged couple devices (CCD) as image sensors, though a few use complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS) instead.

What is the name of the device that changes a pixel's value into a digital value in a CCD digital camera?

Devices that change pixel data into digital data are analog-to-digital converters (ADC). Digital cameras aren't the only devices to use an ADC -- everything from certain cable set top boxes to digital recording devices needs one.

Some digital cameras have sensors that make educated guesses when detecting colors. This is a process called:

Interpolation is the process of making an educated guess as to the nature of a color based on limited information.

What's the most common pattern of color filters found in digital cameras?

The Bayer filter pattern is the most common. It alternates rows of red and green filters with rows of blue and green filters.

Just like traditional film cameras, the small opening that allows light to pass through the lens of a digital camera is called:

A camera's aperture allows light to pass from the lens into the camera itself. The size of the aperture affects the appearance of the captured image.

What is the amount of time the digital camera allows light to pass through the aperture called?

The length of time the camera allows light to pass through the aperture is the shutter speed. Faster shutter speeds allow photographers to take images of subjects that are moving very quickly.

What is the distance between the camera's lens and its image sensor called?

The focal length of any camera is the distance between the lens and the image-recording device -- a sensor with digital cameras and film with traditional cameras.

What is irrelevancy?

Irrelevancy is the name for the meaningless data digital cameras and computers eliminate when compressing a digital image into a smaller file size.

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