An engaging overview of cameras and photography that connects core optics (lenses, focus, exposure) to sensors, color processing, lens types, and life-science applications. Includes practical tips, a DIY pinhole activity, common misconceptions, and workflow advice for sharper scientific images.
Cameras & Photography: The Eye’s Tech-Savvy Cousin That Never Blinks "A camera is just a polite box that asks light to sit still." You already bent light with convex and concave lenses. You peered at galaxies with telescopes and bullied tiny pond creatures with microscopes. Now it’...
What Even Is a Camera? A camera is a device that forms a real, inverted image using a lens and records it on a light-sensitive surface (film or a digital sensor). That’s it. Classic optics! From our earlier lens adventures: a convex lens converges light rays to a focal point. A camera basically pa...
How Focus Happens (and Why Your Photos Sometimes Look Like Potato) In the microscope/telescope unit, we learned that distance to the object matters. Cameras live by the same math: Lens focusing cheat: 1/f = 1/do + 1/di - f: focal length (fixed for a given lens) - do: object distance (you and you...
The Exposure Triangle: Choose Your Fighter Photography is an eternal debate between three settings—like a group project where all three are equally chaotic. Aperture (f-number) Big aperture (small f-number like f/1.8) = more light, blurrier background (shallower depth of field) Small apertu...
Color: How Your Camera Knows Grass Is Green (Most Days) Your digital sensor doesn’t actually see color—it counts photons. To get color, sensors wear a tiny checkerboard called a Bayer filter (or similar). Each pixel only sees red, green, or blue. The camera then performs digital wizardry called de...
Lens Types and Distortions You Actually Notice Remember our lens lineup? Cameras borrow heavily: Prime lens (fixed focal length): sharper, brighter, less zoom Zoom lens (variable focal length): flexible framing, slightly more optical compromises Wide-angle : fits more in the frame; straight ...
The Eye vs. the Camera: Long-Lost Relatives Eye lens = camera lens (both focus by changing the distance/power) Iris/pupil = aperture (controls light) Retina = sensor (rods for brightness, cones for color) Optic nerve = data cable to your brain The eye adjusts focus continuously (accommodat...
Types of Cameras at a Glance Type Lens Aperture Sensor/Film Superpower Typical Use Pinhole No lens, tiny hole Fixed (tiny) Any light-sensitive surface Infinite focus, very dim DIY science, artsy long exposures Film (35mm) Interchangeable or fixed Mechanical Photoche...
10 study modes available based on your content