How does a DSLR Camera work?

The lens in a standard DSLR camera is a normal curved piece of glass or plastic. Its job is to take the beams of light reflecting off of an object and redirect them so they come together to form a real image As light travels from one medium to another, it changes speed. Light travels more quickly through air than it does through glass, so a lens slows it down. When light waves enter a piece of glass at an angle, one part of the wave will reach the glass before another and so will start slowing down first. Light bends in one direction. It bends again when it exits the glass because parts of the light wave enter the air and speed up before other parts of the wave. This is known as refraction. In a standard convex lens, one or both sides of the glass curves out. This means rays of light passing through will bend toward the center of the lens on entry. Also, curving the lens out increases the distance between different points on the lens, This increases the amount of time that one part of the light wave is moving faster than another part, so the light makes a sharper turn. In a lens with a flatter shape, light beams will not turn as sharply. Consequently, the light beams will converge farther away from the lens. To put it another way, the focused real image forms farther away from the lens when the lens has a flatter surface.

Images form in mirrors via three important Laws: Law of Reflection: When a light ray reaches upon a flat shiny surface, the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence. Both of these angles are measured relative to a normal drawn to the surface. The incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal all lie in the same plane. Diffuse reflection: When rays are reflected from a rough surface, they are reflected in many directions and no clear image is formed, they are dispersed. Regular reflection: When rays are reflected from a smooth surface, they are reflected so that a clear image is formed.

There are also 3 types of mirrors which form those images: Plane mirrors: Is a flat mirror that reflects light rays in the same order and angle as they reach the mirror. Concave mirrors: A converging mirror; with the surface slightly protruding away, light rays that strike the mirror surface are reflected so that they converge, or "come together," at a point Convex mirrors: A diverging mirror; with surface slightly bending inwards, light rays that strike the mirror surface are reflected so that they diverge, or "go apart," and they never come to a point.

An image sensor is found in a DSLR camera and it is basically a device that converts an optical image into an electronic signal. A CCD image sensor is an analog device. When light strikes the chip it is held as a small electrical charge in each photo sensor. The charges are converted to voltage one pixel at a time as they are read from the chip. Additional circuitry in the camera converts the voltage into digital information. By Abdelrahman Hassan