Bearing False Witness

Bearing False Witness

Bearing False Witness, CAMERA's monograph about Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid is available for purchase on Amazon.

This volume reviews many of the material errors made in Jimmy Carter's book which are often repeated in his interviews and other writing. It includes articles by a number of expert analysts who examine Carter's policies, statements and perspectives. Kenneth Stein, Dennis Ross, Michael Oren, Alan Dershowitz, Melvin Konner and Rachel Ehrenfeld are among the contributors who offer important insight about the former president's lamentable distortions.

The book is an opportunity to restate essential facts and to underscore the need for reform of publishing houses, such as Simon and Schuster, that violate basic standards of accuracy, while promoting and profiting from such non-fiction books.

Video camera

A video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition, initially developed by the television industry but now common in other applications as well. The earliest video cameras were those of John Logie Baird, based on the electromechanical Nipkow disk and used by the BBC in experimental broadcasts through the 1930s. All-electronic designs based on the cathode ray tube, such as Vladimir Zworykin's Iconoscope and Philo T. Farnsworth's Image dissector, supplanted the Baird system by the 1940s and remained in wide use until the 1980s, when cameras based on solid-state image sensors such as CCDs (and later CMOS active pixel sensors) eliminated common problems with tube technologies such as burn-in and made digital video workflow practical.

Video cameras are used primarily in two modes. The first, characteristic of much early television, is what might be called a live broadcast, where the camera feeds real time images directly to a screen for immediate observation; in addition to live television production, such usage is characteristic of security, military/tactical, and industrial operations where surreptitious or remote viewing is required. The second is to have the images recorded to a storage device for archiving or further processing; videotape is traditional for this purpose, but optical disc media, hard disk, and flash memory are all used as well. Recorded video is used not only in television and film production, but also surveillance and monitoring tasks where unattended recording of a situation is required for later analysis.

Modern video cameras have numerous designs and uses, not all of which resemble the early television cameras.

• Professional video cameras, such as those used in television and sometimes film production; these may be studio-based or mobile. Such cameras generally offer extremely fine-grained manual control for the camera operator, often to the exclusion of automated operation.
• Camcorders, which combine a camera and a VCR or other recording device in one unit; these are mobile, and are widely used for television production, home movies, electronic news gathering (including citizen journalism), and similar applications.
• Closed-circuit television cameras, generally used for security, surveillance, and/or monitoring purposes. Such cameras are designed to be small, easily hidden, and able to operate unattended; those used in industrial or scientific settings are often meant for use in environments that are normally inaccessible or uncomfortable for humans, and are therefore hardened for such hostile environments (e.g. radiation, high heat, or toxic chemical exposure). Webcams can be considered a type of CCTV camera.
• Digital cameras which convert the signal directly to a digital output; such cameras are often extremely small, even smaller than CCTV security cameras, and are often used as webcams or optimized for still-camera use. These cameras are sometimes incorporated directly into computer or communications hardware, particularly mobile phones, PDAs, and some models of laptop computer. Larger video cameras (especially camcorders and CCTV cameras) can also be used as webcams or for other digital input, though such units may need to pass their output through an analog-to-digital converter in order to store the output or send it to a wider network.
• Special systems, like those used for scientific research, e.g. on board a satellite or a spaceprobe, or in artificial intelligence and robotics research. Such cameras are often tuned for non-visible light such as infrared (for night vision and heat sensing) or X-ray (for medical and astronomical use).

Common issues with video camera systems

Some people find video to have a grainy and less desirable look than film, and indeed a great many music videos have traditionally been shot on film rather than videotape(cyclops). With the rise of digital video, however, it has become practical to emulate the "film look" using progressive scan and improved telecine techniques. Many television shows (and even theatrical movies) which would in the past have been shot on film are now done using video, and the capability to do this exists even in some high-end consumer/prosumer equipment.

When imaging a separate video source (i.e. a computer monitor or television, usually one that produces a scanned image), there is often substantial visual artifacting (rolling bars on the monitor screen, for example) generated by differing timing signals between the monitor and the camera. This is generally only an issue with CRT displays and is not common on non-scanning displays such as LCD units.

Similar to audio equipment, video cameras are subject to optical feedback effects. This has sometimes been used to create special video effects (most notably the titles of the first seasons of Doctor Who, ultimately refined into the Tom Baker-era "time vortex" graphic). A more common effect is sometimes referred to as an "endless hallway", that is, an infinite regression consisting of the screen showing pictures of itself; certain stroboscopic effects (shown in a montage in Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid) are also possible when the camera creating the feedback is in motion relative to the screen.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toy camera

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China's Holga camera takes medium-format photographs on 120 film.

The Diana camera, a classic that was made in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s.

Toy cameras are simple, inexpensive film box cameras made almost entirely out of plastic, often including the lens. The term is misleading, since they are not 'toys' in the sense that these cameras are actually capable of taking photographs. Many were made to be given away as novelties or prizes. The Diana, an inexpensive 1960s 4x4cm novelty box camera from Hong Kong, is typically the camera most associated with the term 'toy camera'. Other cameras, such as the LOMO LC-A, Lubitel, and Holga, while originally intended as consumer, mass-market cameras, have also become identified with the term.

Many professional photographers have utilized toy cameras and the often strange optical effects of their inexpensive lenses to take award-winning photographs. Toy camera photography has been widely exhibited at many popular art shows, such as the annual Krappy Kamera show at the Soho Photo Gallery in the TriBeCa neighborhood of New York City. Various publications such as Photography magazine have extolled the virtues of the Diana camera in its own right as an "art" producing image maker. Several books have also featured the work of toy cameras, such as The Friends of Photography's "The Diana Show", "Iowa" by Nancy Rexroth, and "Angels at the Arno" by Eric Lindbloom.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Camera

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Camera (disambiguation).

A modern single-lens reflex camera

Left to right: an Agfa box camera, a Polaroid Land camera, and a Yashica 35 mm SLR

A camera is a device used to capture images, either as still photographs or as sequences of moving images (movies or videos). The term comes from the camera obscura (Latin for "dark chamber"), an early mechanism of projecting images where an entire room functioned as a real-time imaging system; the modern camera evolved from the camera obscura.

Cameras may work with the light of the visible spectrum or with other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. A camera generally consists of an enclosed hollow with an opening (aperture) at one end for light to enter, and a recording or viewing surface for capturing the light at the other end. A majority of cameras have a lens positioned in front of the camera's opening to gather the incoming light and focus all or part of the image on the recording surface. The diameter of the aperture is often controlled by a diaphragm mechanism, but some cameras have a fixed-size aperture.

History

Main article: History of the camera

Camera obscura.

The forerunner to the camera was the camera obscura. The camera obscura is an instrument consisting of a darkened chamber or box, into which light is admitted through a convex lens, forming an image of external objects on a surface of paper or glass, etc., placed at the focus of the lens.^[1] The camera obscura was first invented by the Iraqi scientist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) as described in his Book of Optics (1015-1021).^[2] English scientist Robert Boyle and his assistant Robert Hooke later developed a portable camera obscura in the 1660s.^[3]

The first camera that was small and portable enough to be practical for photography was built by Johann Zahn in 1685, though it would be almost 150 years before technology caught up to the point where this was practical. Early photographic cameras were essentially similar to Zahn's model, though usually with the addition of sliding boxes for focusing. Before each exposure, a sensitized plate would be inserted in front of the viewing screen to record the image. Jacques Daguerre's popular daguerreotype process utilized copper plates, while the calotype process invented by William Fox Talbot recorded images on paper.

The first permanent colour photograph, taken by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861.

The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a sliding wooden box camera made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier in Paris. Niépce built on a discovery by Johann Heinrich Schultz (1724): a silver and chalk mixture darkens under exposure to light. However, while this was the birth of photography, the camera itself can be traced back much further. Before the invention of photography, there was no way to preserve the images produced by these cameras apart from manually tracing them.

The development of the collodion wet plate process by Frederick Scott Archer in 1850 cut exposure times dramatically, but required photographers to prepare and develop their glass plates on the spot, usually in a mobile darkroom. Despite their complexity, the wet-plate ambrotype and tintype processes were in widespread use in the latter half of the 19th century. Wet plate cameras were little different from previous designs, though there were some models, such as the sophisticated Dubroni of 1864, where the sensitizing and developing of the plates could be carried out inside the camera itself rather than in a separate darkroom. Other cameras were fitted with multiple lenses for making cartes de visite. It was during the wet plate era that the use of bellows for focusing became widespread.

The first colour photograph was made by James Clerk Maxwell, with the help of Thomas Sutton, in 1861^[4]

Mechanic

Image capture

19th century studio camera, with bellows for focusing.

Traditional cameras capture light onto photographic film or photographic plate. Video and digital cameras use electronics, usually a charge coupled device (CCD) or sometimes a CMOS sensor to capture images which can be transferred or stored in tape or computer memory inside the camera for later playback or processing.

Cameras that capture many images in sequence are known as movie cameras or as ciné cameras in Europe; those designed for single images are still cameras. However these categories overlap, as still cameras are often used to capture moving images in special effects work and modern digital cameras are often able to trivially switch between still and motion recording modes. A video camera is a category of movie camera that captures images electronically (either using analogue or digital technology).

Focus

Auto-focus systems can capture a subject a variety of ways; here, the focus is on the person's image in the mirror.

Due to the optical properties of photographic lenses, only objects within an exact range of distances from the camera will be reproduced clearly. The process of adjusting this range is known as changing the camera's focus. There are various ways of focusing a camera accurately. The simplest cameras have fixed focus and use a small aperture and wide-angle lens to ensure that everything within a certain range of distance from the lens, usually around 3 metres (10 ft) to infinity, is in reasonable focus. Fixed focus cameras are usually inexpensive types, such as single-use cameras. The camera can also have a limited focusing range or scale-focus that is indicated on the camera body. The user will guess or calculate the distance to the subject and adjust the focus accordingly. On some cameras this is indicated by symbols (head-and-shoulders; two people standing upright; one tree; mountains).

Rangefinder cameras allow the distance to objects to be measured by means of a coupled parallax unit on top of the camera, allowing the focus to be set with accuracy. Single-lens reflex cameras allow the photographer to determine the focus and composition visually using the objective lens and a moving mirror to project the image onto a ground glass or plastic micro-prism screen. Twin-lens reflex cameras use an objective lens and a focusing lens unit (usually identical to the objective lens) in a parallel body for composition and focusing. View cameras use a ground glass screen which is removed and replaced by either a photographic plate or a reusable holder containing sheet film before exposure. Modern cameras often offer autofocus systems to focus the camera automatically by a variety of methods.^[5]

Exposure control

The size of the aperture and the brightness of the scene controls the amount of light that enters the camera during a period of time, and the shutter controls the length of time that the light hits the recording surface. Equivalent exposures can be made with a larger aperture and a faster shutter speed or a corresponding smaller aperture and with the shutter speed slowed down.

Image gallery

Contax S—the world's first pentaprism SLR	Asahiflex	Kodak Retina IIIC	Nikon F of 1959
Voigtländer Vitoret of 1962	Silvestri Flexicam	Opened up Cine Kodak, used 35mm movie film	Voigtländer Brillant twin-lens reflex camera.