1080p 2.7 tft lcd car camera free sample

If you"ve ever been in a fender-bender or a serious car accident, you can appreciate the importance of a dash cam. These tiny car cameras stick to your windshield and silently record driving footage, capturing all the strange, mundane, and perilous things going on in front of your car. In addition to peace of mind during daily commutes, they can provide information footage to law enforcement, insurance companies, and other parties in accident situations, monitor your car when you"re not around, and sometimes capture fun videos of you and your friends on a road trip.

But with the numerous big and small companies making dash cameras now, wading through the sea of devices before you choose one to buy is a formidable task. Ars reviewed the newest dash cams and revisited our testing of existing devices to pick the best dash cams available now.

I can sum up my philosophy about dash cams in one sentence: the best dash cams disappear in your car, monitoring your surroundings and only making themselves known when you need them most. Anker’s Roav Duo does that very well, filming you and your passenger in addition to the road. Some people won’t want to be recorded while driving for various reasons, but that extra video feed could be vital to showing your side of the story in the case of an accident.

Both of the Roav Duo’s cameras record 1080p video, and both have fairly wide fields of view: 155 degrees on the front-facing camera and 110 degrees on the rear camera. Just be mindful of where you place the Roav Duo—you can angle the rear camera up and down, but not side to side. While you can swivel the entire dash cam up to 180 degrees, I recommend placing the device on the left side of your rear-view mirror so it can capture the driver completely rather than the passenger. Advertisement

If you’re in an accident, the rear camera could prove that you weren’t texting, leaning over to check your phone, or doing something hazardous that could have caused the incident. Hopefully you would never have to use the Roav Duo’s footage for something that serious, but it’s helpful to have when necessary. Most of our drives are mundane at best, and the Roav Duo can also capture that impromptu Carpool Karaoke session you started to keep you and your passengers entertained.

In addition, Anker packed a few extra features into this $129 dash cam. Its built-in GPS takes note of your location and speed, and the latter can be stamped onto your recordings if you wish. Dual Sony sensors and NightHawk technology help the camera record decently bright and crisp video at night. Also, an optional parking kit lets the camera continue recording even when your car is off, capturing any nefarious incidents that happen when you’re away.

The Roav Duo also has a G-sensor to detect impacts and save recordings immediately when it does so. It can take up to a 128GB microSD card on which it saves all footage, and the camera will automatically delete the oldest clips in order to make space for new ones.

Aside from its adhesive mount, the biggest drawback of the Roav Duo is its lack of mobile app. You’ll have to remove the microSD card and insert it into your computer in order to access any videos or photos—that’s pretty standard, but many of the newest dash cams have a basic mobile app that lets you access footage immediately. But if you can live without a mobile app, the $129 Anker Roav Duo is a solid dash cam that will cover incidents both in and around your car.

Often priced below $50, the Yi Dash Cam looks like a bulkier version of Garmin"s dash cams: a larger rectangle with a lens on its front, a 2.7-inch LCD display on its back, and navigation buttons on its bottom edge. The camera saves footage via loop recording to a microSD card, but it also has its own Wi-Fi network and app so you can view clips on your smartphone in the Yi camera app. Advertisement

All footage is saved to the device"s microSD card, but the mobile app gives you extra access. You can either manually download clips through the app to your smartphone, or remove the microSD card and access footage via your PC. The Yi mobile app is surprisingly good—it sections video clips off by date and lets you view them in the app or download them to your device with just a few taps. The dash cam"s Wi-Fi network is always on (unless you change that setting manually), making it super quick to connect to and play footage on your smartphone.

There"s a makeshift social aspect of the Yi camera app as well, but you can easily ignore it if you have no desire to share footage with strangers. The app also has a camera settings page that lets you change the dash cam"s settings from within the app rather than using the buttons on the device itself.

The DJI Action 2 is a modular action camera with a very compact body and impressive 4K video capabilities. It"s a reimagined version of DJI"s Osmo Action camera and features a variety of magnetic modules so users can customize it to their shooting needs.

The Action 2 uses a 1/1.7" CMOS sensor, which is larger than the 1/2.3" sensor in the original Osmo Action camera. Its F2.8 lens gives a 155º field of view (FoV) and a new color temperature sensor helps the camera quickly adjust as shooting situations change.

The camera also features a new stabilization mode called HorizonSteady that promises to keep horizon lines stable regardless of camera orientation and DJI"s RockSteady 2.0 to reduce shake. Other features include Hyperlapse, Timelapse, 8x slow-mo, and "Lapse Control", allowing users to control the speed and duration of hyperlapse and timelapse modes. The camera can be used as a webcam or for live streaming at 1080/30p.

The Action 2"s updated body design is the most visible change to DJI"s line of action cameras. It is extremely compact when used without any accessories, weighing just 56 grams (~2 ounces) and measuring 39 x 39 x 22.3mm. The OLED touchscreen is found on the back of the camera, and a single button on the top allows you to record video or shoot photos.

Camera settings are all changed using the OLED touchscreen on the back or the DJI Mimo app. On the bottom of the Action 2, you will find magnetic contacts that allow you to connect various accessories to the camera.

You can connect the front-facing screen module or an extra battery pack to the Action 2 to increase its battery life. Using either of these accessories also lets you record to a micro SD card, expanding upon the main module"s 32GB of built-in memory. The front-facing screen boosts battery life from 70 minutes up to 160 minutes (shooting 1080/30p), and the battery pack will increase battery life up to 3 hours. The two modules cannot be used at the same time.

The modular magnetic design makes it easy to swap out accessories quickly while still keeping the overall size of the Action 2 relatively small. The magnetic design also lets you attach the Action 2 to any magnetic surface, which in theory sounds like a way to capture some unique points of view. But for reasons I"ll explain below, I wouldn"t recommend attaching this camera to the hood of your car.

Although the camera attaches nicely to the wearable necklace accessory, the FPV footage leaves something to be desired. I shot some hyperlapses with it, and keeping my hair, headphone cable or jacket from covering the camera was an issue. The horizon lines in the footage also tended to be a little skewed.

If you are shooting with the Action 2 attached to the necklace, you will want to control it using the DJI app, but if the camera is on for a long time, I found that the camera tended to disconnect from the app, and the camera would stop recording.

The necklace is more discreet than a chest harness, but the blinking light on the front of the Action 2 makes it pretty obvious that you are wearing a camera. Depending on the size of your chest, the design might also prove a little awkward, and the magnet that allows you to connect the camera to the necklace accessory is tiny and easy to lose track of.

The camera is also prone to overheating and shutting itself off, and wearing it close to your body only seems to make that happen faster. Although having a hands-free option with the camera is a nice touch, I preferred holding onto the camera or attaching it to one of the mini tripods. For a hands-free option, the headband might offer a slightly better choice for capturing FPV perspectives.

Using one of the mini tripods was the easiest way to work with the DJI Action 2. The stabilization tech inside the camera is good enough that it eliminates the need for a gimbal.

Ultimately, the speed at which the camera seems to overheat could be its biggest drawback. In use, the Action 2 became extremely hot to the touch after about three minutes of shooting at 1080p. While shooting 4K footage, it wasn"t uncommon in my time with it for the camera to overheat, stop recording, and shut itself off.

When used in a controlled environment, the longest we could record while shooting 4K/50p before the camera shut itself off was around seven minutes. One "fix" is to record at a lower resolution, which produces less heat, but for many users that will defeat the purpose of buying a 4K action camera. However, DJI shared some additional information about the camera"s thermal management that proved helpful.

It turns out that air cooling is part of the camera"s design. It"s built from an aluminum alloy that"s designed to conduct and dissipate heat and, according to DJI, as long as the wind velocity around the camera is at least 1 m/s, you shouldn"t run into overheating issues in average outdoor temperatures. Additionally, the camera includes a setting that allows you to adjust its cut-off temperature to suit your usage and preferences. It can be set to Standard (48º C) or High (53º C), with the latter giving you a bit more latitude.

What this means is that the context in which you plan to use the camera is important. When doing controlled testing on a tripod in an apartment, or even when shooting bands at indoor clubs as we did, there"s unlikely to be much of a breeze flowing over the camera, and it will heat up pretty fast. On the other hand, if you plan to mount the camera on your bike"s handlebars or use it on your snowboarding helmet, with wind flowing around the camera and wicking away heat, then overheating might not be as much of an issue.

The touchscreen is responsive, but given the camera"s tiny size, it requires somewhat nimble fingers. Switching modes on the back of the camera can be a little cumbersome, as you have to swipe from the center of the screen to toggle between photo, video, quick clip, slow motion, and timelapse modes.

During my time with the Action 2, I brought it to several live shows and was impressed by what it could do. It"s much smaller than a phone, easier to hold onto, and if someone in the crowd comes careening into you mid-set, you don"t have to worry about the Action 2 taking a tumble. It happened, and the Action 2 was just fine. If it had been my phone, it would have been a bummer.

The Rizzos at TV Eye. Shot at 4K/50p. Although the camera is excellent at capturing stabilized footage, only having one mic means that the audio quality doesn"t sound much better than what you can capture with a smartphone.

As mentioned earlier, the Action 2 can heat up fast and is prone to shutting itself off, so it may not be the best choice for capturing behind the scenes footage. I tried to use it as an additional camera on a music video shoot and was disappointed that it had overheated and shut itself off during most of the takes of the song.

The 12MP out-of-camera JPEGs look good enough, and having the option to shoot Raw gives you more flexibility with edits. However, the Action 2 requires you to pick one format and doesn"t allow you to capture both JPEG and Raw at the same time. Most action cams don"t have the ability to shoot super close, but the Action 2 is unique since it offers a macro lens attachment. Shooting with the macro lens accessory does introduce a pretty heavy vignette to the images that it produces, though.

Editor"s note: This conclusion was written several months before DJI announced its new Magnetic Protective Case for the camera, which promises to improve heat management and extend recording times. For more info on the Magnetic Protective Case please visit DJI"s website.

DJI spent more than two years rethinking its place in the action camera market, and the Action 2"s design is truly innovative. This camera is tiny, the field of view is wider than most of its competitors, stabilization is excellent and the footage that it can capture is impressive.

We"re optimistic that app functionality will improve over time, but overheating could be a problem depending on how you intend to use the camera. It makes sense that air cooling is an integral part of its design given the minuscule size, but this limits its use in certain situations. As such, the Action 2 is probably not the best choice for shooting 4K video of static setups or indoors, but it might fit the bill for outdoor activities or action sports.

The price is also somewhat high for what you get. The Action 2 by itself is $399, but if you bundle it with the front-facing LCD module, it jumps to $519. The design here is undoubtedly innovative, and we were impressed by the quality of the footage it captured. But the price is high for a camera that could potentially overheat and shut off when you least expect it to.

The best Uber dash cams record the road ahead (like other dash cams(opens in new tab)), but also look elsewhere. Some give you a front and rear dash cam(opens in new tab). Some include an interior camera to keep an eye on your passengers. And some include all three. The number of cameras is often called ‘channels.’

You get a front camera, which records at a very-high-resolution 1440p through its 160° lens, as well as an interior and rear camera, which both capture 140° of footage at 1080p. You can even opt for 4K if you ditch the other cameras. Each of these cameras offers great night image quality, even in low light, and you can get usable images in complete darkness.

Want 4K? Then you want the Vantrue N4. When you have no passengers in your cabin, you can choose to shoot 4K high-resolution video from the front camera. However, if you choose to record from all front, rear and cabin, the maximum resolution is 1440P, 1080P, and 1080P respectively (all at 30fps).

Not bothered about a cabin view? Then the Toguard CE41 dash cam provides views of both the road in front and inside of the car, at a very reasonable price. It"s also nicely unobstrusive, slim and compact.

The interior facing camera, with its 140° lens, four infrared LED lights and an F/1.8 aperture, can still provide valuable footage when your passengers are in darkness. The front camera, meanwhile, offers a 170° wide angle view.

A loop recording feature means you can set your cam to overwrite recordings, which means you won’t have to worry about running out of memory card. Recordings are locked and stored automatically on sudden impact. And in parking mode the camera switches on automatically when it detects movement.

It might look fairly ordinary at first glance, but what makes the NextBase 622GW stand out is both the high-end 140˚ 4K camera which comes supplied and the modular design. It also boasts image stabilization so the picture will be good even with car vibration. You can choose to – and, indeed, as an Uber driver should – augment the camera with a couple more. One (with a 30˚ telephoto angle) plugs directly into the side and looks the other way, making a 2-channel device with a great a rear view. An alternative is a cabin view version. Another option is a wired camera which you can position anywhere to get the best view from the rear.

The Garmin Dash Cam Tandem doesn"t come cheap, but it provides a lot of value. This pocket-size dash camera features two 180-degree field of view lenses that record in tandem, providing complete video coverage around the driver.

The front camera records at a crystal-clear 1440p, while the 720p interior-facing lens harnesses Garmin"s proprietary NightGlo technology for clear video of passengers at night. You also get voice control, built-in GPS, and Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing you to share video on your phone using the free app.

Another nice touch is that the charger has an extra USB port, so you can power your phone or another device while you"re driving. And the icing on the cake: it comes with a pre-installed microSD card, so you can use it right out of the box.

The Nexar Pro GPS dash cam is very simple to set up: it shouldn"t take more than five minutes to do so. As well as a front-facing camera, there"s a cabin camera, which is optional. If you want to, plug it into the side, and use the included windscreen mount to position it in the direction you want. Or if you"d rather leave it in the box for another day, that"s fine too.

It"s not only when you"re driving that you need to worry about your car. That"s why Viofo A129 Duo comes with three parking mode solutions. Auto Event Detection will automatically start recording once any event is detected. Time Lapse continuously records a video at low frames. Finally, Low Bitrate keeps recording continuously in mini file size.

The Blueskysea B2W Dual Lens Dash Cam features two 1080P HD cameras and a 2-inch LCD screen for setting it up and monitoring footage. So far, so unexpected. However, what"s different here is that you can rotate both cameras horizontally by up to 110°, allowing you fine control over where the lens is pointing, both in and out of the car. So for example, if you were talking to someone through your driver window, you"d be able to get a perfect picture where other models would struggle.

This dash cam is a bit pricier than some rivals. But on the plus side, you do get a 32GB microSD memory card included in the package, as well as a USB car charger, a windscreen mount with 3M adhesive, a suction cup mount, and four cable clips.

Here"s another very capable dashcam for Uber drivers. The Redtiger Dash Cam offers a top-quality 4K picture (3840 x 2160P) on the front camera, and Full HD (1920 x 1080P) on the rear. You also get a wide angle view (170° front and 140° rear) to capture as much of the action as possible.

If you use an unusual kind of vehicle, or want to ensure maximum camera cover, Thinkware have you covered. The F790 is one a few dashcams which can connect to the firm’s multiplexer which, in turn, can connect to a variety of other cameras. On its own, the F790 is a wi-fi GPS dashcam which shares its recordings via a free app. Thinkware’s ‘Super Night Vision’ affords good quality night vision while images are successfully dewarped.

This three-camera system, which can support a MicroSD card(opens in new tab) up to 256GB, takes the – often correct – view that frame-rate matters. As such the front camera is a seemingly average 1080P until you discover it captures double the frame rate of most competitors, which means even high-speed incidents will be captured. The rear camera, however, is a more typical 1080P/30fps while the interior is only 720P.

This three-camera system doesn’t just offer a lot of flexibility in terms of camera positioning, but offers AI warnings found in high-spec luxury cars like lane departure warning, collision alerts and so on. Whether, as a professional driver, these are desirable is up to you. What is handy, though, is the built-in cameras being positionable as you choose; there is one on either end of the recording unit which can swivel horizontally, and an additional camera for the rear in the pro pack.

If you’re looking to add a dashcam but might also need to cover yourself out of the vehicle – walking to the door, for example – then the Boblov M5 might be the solution. It is primarily a body worn camera but with swappable clip accessories in the box including a car suction mount. That means you can give it a role inside the car – perhaps monitoring passengers with its IR night vision – then move it to another mount to wear on your clothes.

• Professional installation: The other alternative is to get your dash cam installed professionally with hidden wiring. It will cost more, and you can’t move the camera from one vehicle to another, but it looks better.

• Protection while parked: The advantage of a wired in dash cam is that it can keep running while your car is parked, and record suspicious activity, attempted theft or parking bumps.

• Front, rear and interior cameras: Sometimes, the hazard is from behind, so a rear-facing dash cam can be very useful. We have a separate buying guide to the best front and rear dash cams(opens in new tab). Some front facing dash cams come with an optional rear camera upgrade. Some drivers, and particularly those who make a living carrying passengers, will want a dashcam that also records the vehicle"s interior (as featured in the Uber dash cam guide, above)

• High dynamic range: It sounds like a feature for a high-end digital camera, but HDR capture can be an advantage in very bright, high-contrast lighting.

A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital,photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile devices like smartphones with the same or more capabilities and features of dedicated cameras (which are still available).

Digital and digital movie cameras share an optical system, typically using a lens with a variable diaphragm to focus light onto an image pickup device.shutter admit a controlled amount of light to the image, just as with film, but the image pickup device is electronic rather than chemical. However, unlike film cameras, digital cameras can display images on a screen immediately after being recorded, and store and delete images from memory. Many digital cameras can also record moving videos with sound. Some digital cameras can crop and stitch pictures and perform other elementary image editing.

In the 1960s, Eugene F. Lally of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was thinking about how to use a mosaic photosensor to capture digital images. His idea was to take pictures of the planets and stars while travelling through space to give information about the astronauts" position.Texas Instruments employee Willis Adcock"s film-less camera (US patent 4,057,830) in 1972,

The Cromemco Cyclops was an all-digital camera introduced as a commercial product in 1975. Its design was published as a hobbyist construction project in the February 1975 issue of RAM (DRAM) memory chip.

Steven Sasson, an engineer at Eastman Kodak, invented and built a self-contained electronic camera that used a CCD image sensor in 1975.Fujifilm began developing CCD technology in the 1970s.

Nikon has been interested in digital photography since the mid-1980s. In 1986, while presenting to Photokina, Nikon introduced an operational prototype of the first SLR-type electronic camera (Still Video Camera), manufactured by Panasonic.pixels. Storage media, a magnetic floppy disk inside the camera allows recording 25 or 50 B&W images, depending on the definition.

At Photokina 1988, Fujifilm introduced the FUJIX DS-1P, the first fully digital camera, capable of saving data to a semiconductor memory card. The camera"s memory card had a capacity of 2 MB of SRAM (static random-access memory), and could hold up to ten photographs. In 1989, Fujifilm released the FUJIX DS-X, the first fully digital camera to be commercially released.Toshiba"s 40 MB flash memory card was adopted for several digital cameras.

The first commercial camera phone was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, released in Japan in May 1999.pixel front-facing camera.digital images, which could be sent over e-mail, or the phone could send up to two images per second over Japan"s Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) cellular network.Samsung SCH-V200, released in South Korea in June 2000, was also one of the first phones with a built-in camera. It had a TFT liquid-crystal display (LCD) and stored up to 20 digital photos at 350,000-pixel resolution. However, it could not send the resulting image over the telephone function, but required a computer connection to access photos.J-SH04, a Sharp J-Phone model sold in Japan in November 2000.cell phones had an integrated digital camera and by the early 2010s, almost all smartphones had an integrated digital camera.

The two major types of digital image sensor are CCD and CMOS. A CCD sensor has one amplifier for all the pixels, while each pixel in a CMOS active-pixel sensor has its own amplifier.back-side-illuminated CMOS (BSI-CMOS) sensor. The image processing capabilities of the camera determine the outcome of the final image quality much more than the sensor type.

The resolution of a digital camera is often limited by the image sensor that turns light into discrete signals. The brighter the image at a given point on the sensor, the larger the value that is read for that pixel.

Depending on the physical structure of the sensor, a color filter array may be used, which requires demosaicing to recreate a full-color image. The number of pixels in the sensor determines the camera"s "pixel count".

An image sharpness is presented through the crisp detail, defined lines, and its depicted contrast. Sharpness is a factor of multiple systems throughout the DSLR camera by its ISO, resolution, lens and the lens settings, the environment of the image and its post processing. Images have a possibility of being too sharp but it can never be too in focus.

A digital camera resolution is determined by a digital sensor. The digital sensor indicates a high level of sharpness can be produced through the amount of noise and grain that is tolerated through the lens of the camera. Resolution within the field of digital still and digital movie is indicated through the camera"s ability to determine detail based on the distance which is then measured by frame size, pixel type, number, and organization although some DSLR cameras have resolutions limited it almost impossible to not have the proper sharpness for an image. The ISO choice when taking a photo effects the quality of the image as high ISO settings equates to an image that is less sharp due to increased amount of noise allowed into the image along with too little noise can also produce an image that is not sharp.

Digital camera, partially disassembled. The lens assembly (bottom right) is partially removed, but the sensor (top right) still captures an image, as seen on the LCD screen (bottom left).

Single-shot capture systems use either one sensor chip with a Bayer filter mosaic, or three separate image sensors (one each for the primary additive colors red, green, and blue) which are exposed to the same image via a beam splitter (see Three-CCD camera).

The third method is called scanning because the sensor moves across the focal plane much like the sensor of an image scanner. The linear or tri-linear sensors in scanning cameras utilize only a single line of photosensors, or three lines for the three colors. Scanning may be accomplished by moving the sensor (for example, when using color co-site sampling) or by rotating the whole camera. A digital rotating line camera offers images consisting of a total resolution that is very high.

Improvements in single-shot cameras and image file processing at the beginning of the 21st century made single shot cameras almost completely dominant, even in high-end commercial photography.

Cameras that use a beam-splitter single-shot 3CCD approach, three-filter multi-shot approach, color co-site sampling or Foveon X3 sensor do not use anti-aliasing filters, nor demosaicing.

Firmware in the camera, or a software in a raw converter program such as Adobe Camera Raw, interprets the raw data from the sensor to obtain a full color image, because the RGB color model requires three intensity values for each pixel: one each for the red, green, and blue (other color models, when used, also require three or more values per pixel).

Cameras with digital image sensors that are smaller than the typical 35 mm film size have a smaller field or angle of view when used with a lens of the same focal length. This is because angle of view is a function of both focal length and the sensor or film size used.

The crop factor is relative to the 35mm film format. If a smaller sensor is used, as in most digicams, the field of view is cropped by the sensor to smaller than the 35 mm full-frame format"s field of view. This narrowing of the field of view may be described as crop factor, a factor by which a longer focal length lens would be needed to get the same field of view on a 35 mm film camera. Full-frame digital SLRs utilize a sensor of the same size as a frame of 35 mm film.

Common values for field of view crop in DSLRs using active pixel sensors include 1.3x for some Canon (APS-H) sensors, 1.5x for Sony APS-C sensors used by Nikon, Pentax and Konica Minolta and for Fujifilm sensors, 1.6 (APS-C) for most Canon sensors, ~1.7x for Sigma"s Foveon sensors and 2x for Kodak and Panasonic 4/3-inch sensors currently used by Olympus and Panasonic. Crop factors for non-SLR consumer compact and bridge cameras are larger, frequently 4x or more.

The resolution of a digital camera is often limited by the image sensor that turns light into discrete signals. The brighter the image at a given point on the sensor, the larger the value that is read for that pixel. Depending on the physical structure of the sensor, a color filter array may be used, which requires demosaicing to recreate a full-color image. The number of pixels in the sensor determines the camera"s "pixel count". In a typical sensor, the pixel count is the product of the number of rows and the number of columns. Pixels are square and is often equal to 1, for example, a 1,000 by 1,000 pixel sensor would have 1,000,000 pixels, or 1 megapixel. On full-frame sensors (i.e., 24 mm 36 mm), some cameras propose images with 20–25 million pixels that were captured by 7.5–m photosites, or a surface that is 50 times larger.

Digital cameras come in a wide range of sizes, prices and capabilities. In addition to general purpose digital cameras, specialized cameras including multispectral imaging equipment and astrographs are used for scientific, military, medical and other special purposes.

Compact cameras are usually designed to be easy to use. Almost all include an automatic mode, or "auto mode", which automatically makes all camera settings for the user. Some also have manual controls. Compact digital cameras typically contain a small sensor which trades-off picture quality for compactness and simplicity; images can usually only be stored using lossy compression (JPEG). Most have a built-in flash usually of low power, sufficient for nearby subjects. A few high end compact digital cameras have a hotshoe for connecting to an external flash. Live preview is almost always used to frame the photo on an integrated LCD. In addition to being able to take still photographs almost all compact cameras have the ability to record video.

Compacts often have macro capability and zoom lenses, but the zoom range (up to 30x) is generally enough for candid photography but less than is available on bridge cameras (more than 60x), or the interchangeable lenses of DSLR cameras available at a much higher cost.Autofocus systems in compact digital cameras generally are based on a contrast-detection methodology using the image data from the live preview feed of the main imager. Some compact digital cameras use a hybrid autofocus system similar to what is commonly available on DSLRs.

Typically, compact digital cameras incorporate a nearly silent leaf shutter into the lens but play a simulated camera sound for skeuomorphic purposes.

For low cost and small size, these cameras typically use image sensor formats with a diagonal between 6 and 11 mm, corresponding to a crop factor between 7 and 4. This gives them weaker low-light performance, greater depth of field, generally closer focusing ability, and smaller components than cameras using larger sensors. Some cameras use a larger sensor including, at the high end, a pricey full-frame sensor compact camera, such as Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1, but have capability near that of a DSLR.

Starting in 2011, some compact digital cameras can take 3D still photos. These 3D compact stereo cameras can capture 3D panoramic photos with dual lens or even single lens for play back on a 3D TV.

Rugged compact cameras typically include protection against submersion, hot and cold conditions, shock and pressure. Terms used to describe such properties include waterproof, freeze-proof, heatproof, shockproof and crushproof, respectively. Nearly all major camera manufacturers have at least one product in this category. Some are waterproof to a considerable depth up to 100 feet (30 m);

GoPro and other brands offer action cameras which are rugged, small and can be easily attached to helmets, arms, bicycles, etc. Most have wide angle and fixed focus, and can take still pictures and video, typically with sound.

The 360-degree camera can take picture or video 360 degrees using two lenses back-to-back and shooting at the same time. Some of the cameras are Ricoh Theta S, Nikon Keymission 360 and Samsung Gear 360. Nico360 was launched in 2016 and claimed as the world"s smallest 360-degree camera with size 46 x 46 x 28 mm (1.8 x 1.8 x 1.1 in) and price less than $200. With virtual reality mode built-in stitching, Wifi, and Bluetooth, live streaming can be done. Due to it also being water resistant, the Nico360 can be used as action camera.

Bridge cameras physically resemble DSLRs, and are sometimes called DSLR-shape or DSLR-like. They provide some similar features but, like compacts, they use a fixed lens and a small sensor. Some compact cameras have also PSAM mode.manual focus mode and some have a separate focus ring for greater control.

Big physical size and small sensor allow superzoom and wide aperture. Bridge cameras generally include an image stabilization system to enable longer handheld exposures, sometimes better than DSLR for low light conditions.

As of 2014, bridge cameras come in two principal classes in terms of sensor size, firstly the more traditional 1/2.3" sensor (as measured by image sensor format) which gives more flexibility in lens design and allows for handholdable zoom from 20 to 24 mm (35 mm equivalent) wide angle all the way up to over 1000 mm supertele, and secondly a 1" sensor that allows better image quality particularly in low light (higher ISO) but puts greater constraints on lens design, resulting in zoom lenses that stop at 200 mm (constant aperture, e.g. Sony RX10) or 400 mm (variable aperture, e.g. Panasonic Lumix FZ1000) equivalent, corresponding to an optical zoom factor of roughly 10 to 15.

Some bridge cameras have a lens thread to attach accessories such as wide-angle or telephoto converters as well as filters such as UV or Circular Polarizing filter and lens hoods. The scene is composed by viewing the display or the electronic viewfinder (EVF). Most have a slightly longer shutter lag than a DSLR. Many of these cameras can store images in a raw format in addition to supporting JPEG.

In bright sun, the quality difference between a good compact camera and a digital SLR is minimal but bridge cameras are more portable, cost less and have a greater zoom ability. Thus a bridge camera may better suit outdoor daytime activities, except when seeking professional-quality photos.

In late 2008, a new type of camera emerged, called a DSLR camera that does not require a reflex mirror, a key component of the former. While a typical DSLR has a mirror that reflects light from the lens up to the optical viewfinder, in a mirrorless camera, there is no optical viewfinder. The image sensor is exposed to light at all times, giving the user a digital preview of the image either on the built-in rear LCD screen or an electronic viewfinder (EVF).

These are simpler and more compact than DSLRs due to not having a lens reflex system. MILCs, or mirrorless cameras for short, come with various sensor sizes depending on the brand and manufacturer, these include: a small 1/2.3 inch sensor, as is commonly used in bridge cameras such as the original Pentax Q (more recent Pentax Q versions have a slightly larger 1/1.7 inch sensor); a 1-inch sensor; a Micro Four Thirds sensor; an APS-C sensor found in Sony NEX series and α "DSLR-likes", Fujifilm X series, Pentax K-01, and Canon EOS M; and some, such as the Sony α7, use a full frame (35 mm) sensor, with the Hasselblad X1D being the first medium format mirrorless camera. Some MILCs have a separate electronic viewfinder to compensate the lack of an optical one. In other cameras, the back display is used as the primary viewfinder in the same way as in compact cameras. One disadvantage of mirrorless cameras compared to a typical DSLR is its battery life due to the energy consumption of the electronic viewfinder, but this can be mitigated by a setting inside the camera in some models.

Olympus and Panasonic released many Micro Four Thirds cameras with interchangeable lenses that are fully compatible with each other without any adapter, while others have proprietary mounts. In 2014, Kodak released its first Micro Four Third system camera.

While most digital cameras with interchangeable lenses feature a lens-mount of some kind, there are also a number of modular cameras, where the shutter and sensor are incorporated into the lens module.

The first such modular camera was the Minolta Dimâge V in 1996, followed by the Minolta Dimâge EX 1500 in 1998 and the Minolta MetaFlash 3D 1500 in 1999. In 2009, Ricoh released the Ricoh GXR modular camera.

At CES 2013, Sakar International announced the Polaroid iM1836, an 18MP camera with 1"-sensor with interchangeable sensor-lens. An adapter for Micro Four Thirds, Nikon and K-mount lenses was planned to ship with the camera.

There are also a number of add-on camera modules for smartphones, they are called lens-style cameras (lens camera or smart lens). They contain all the essential components of a digital camera inside a DSLR lens-shaped module, hence the name, but lack any sort of viewfinder and most controls of a regular camera. Instead, they are connected wirelessly and/or mounted to a smartphone to be used as its display output and operate the camera"s various controls.

Sony Cyber-shot QX series "Smart Lens" or "SmartShot" cameras, announced and released in mid 2013 with the Cyber-shot DSC-QX10. In January 2014, a firmware update was announced for the DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100.DSC-QX30 as well as the Alpha ILCE-QX1,Sony E-mount instead of a built-in lens.

Kodak PixPro smart lens camera series, announced in 2014. These include: the 5X optical zoom SL5, 10X optical zoom SL10, and the 25X optical zoom SL25; all featuring 16MP sensors and 1080p video recording, except for the SL5 which caps at 720p.

Olympus Air A01 lens camera, announced in 2014 and released in 2015, the lens camera is an open platform with an Android operating system and can detach into 2 parts (sensor module and lens), just like the Sony QX1, and all compatible Micro Four Thirds lenses can then be attached to the built-in lens mount of the camera"s sensor module.

Digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) is a camera with a digital sensor that utilizes a reflex mirror to split or direct light into the viewfinder to produce an image.

The sensor also known as a full-frame sensor is much larger than the other types, typically 18mm to 36mm on the diagonal (crop factor 2, 1.6, or 1).interchangeable lenses for versatility by removing it from the lens mount of the camera, typically a silver ring on the front side of DSLRs.

Digital Still Camera (DSC), such as the Sony DSC cameras, is a type of camera that doesn"t use a reflex mirror. DSCs are like point-and-shoot cameras and are the most common type of cameras, due to their comfortable price and its quality.

Cameras with fixed semi-transparent mirrors, also known as DSLT cameras, such as the Sony SLT cameras, are single-lens without a moving reflex mirror as in a conventional DSLR. A semi-transparent mirror transmits some of the light to the image sensor and reflects some of the light along the path to a pentaprism/pentamirror which then goes to an optical view finder (OVF) as is done with a reflex mirror in DSLR cameras. The total amount of light is not changed, just some of the light travels one path and some of it travels the other. The consequences are that DSLT cameras should shoot a half stop differently from DSLR. One advantage of using a DSLT camera is the blind moments a DSLR user experiences while the reflecting mirror is moved to send the light to the sensor instead of the viewfinder do not exist for DSLT cameras. Because there is no time at which light is not traveling along both paths, DSLT cameras get the benefit of continuous auto-focus tracking. This is especially beneficial for burst-mode shooting in low-light conditions and also for tracking when taking video.

A rangefinder is a device to measure subject distance, with the intent to adjust the focus of a camera"s objective lens accordingly (open-loop controller). The rangefinder and lens focusing mechanism may or may not be coupled. In common parlance, the term "rangefinder camera" is interpreted very narrowly to denote manual-focus cameras with a visually-read out optical rangefinder based on parallax. Most digital cameras achieve focus through analysis of the image captured by the objective lens and distance estimation, if it is provided at all, is only a byproduct of the focusing process (closed-loop controller).

A San Francisco cable car, imaged using an Alkeria Necta N4K2-7C line scan camera with a shutter speed of 250 microseconds, or 4000 frames per second.

A line-scan camera traditionally has a single row of pixel sensors, instead of a matrix of them. The lines are continuously fed to a computer that joins them to each other and makes an image.frame grabber which resides in a PCI slot of an industrial computer. The frame grabber acts to buffer the image and sometimes provide some processing before delivering to the computer software for processing. Industrial processes often require height and width measurements performed by digital line-scan systems.

Many industrial applications require a wide field of view. Traditionally maintaining consistent light over large 2D areas is quite difficult. With a line scan camera all that is necessary is to provide even illumination across the “line” currently being viewed by the camera. This makes sharp pictures of objects that pass the camera at high speed.

Such cameras are also commonly used to make photo finishes, to determine the winner when multiple competitors cross the finishing line at nearly the same time. They can also be used as industrial instruments for analyzing fast processes.

Line-scan cameras are also extensively used in imaging from satellites (see push broom scanner). In this case the row of sensors is perpendicular to the direction of satellite motion. Line-scan cameras are widely used in scanners. In this case, the camera moves horizontally.

This type of digital camera captures information about the light field emanating from a scene; that is, the intensity of light in a scene, and also the direction that the light rays are traveling in space. This contrasts with a conventional digital camera, which records only light intensity.

Many devices have a built-in digital camera, including, for example, smartphones, mobile phones, PDAs and laptop computers. Built-in cameras generally store the images in the JPEG file format.

Mobile phones incorporating digital cameras were introduced in Japan in 2001 by J-Phone. In 2003 camera phones outsold stand-alone digital cameras, and in 2006 they outsold film and digital stand-alone cameras. Five billion camera phones were sold in five years, and by 2007 more than half of the installed base of all mobile phones were camera phones. Sales of separate cameras peaked in 2008.

There are many manufacturers that lead in the production of digital cameras (commonly DSLRs). Each brand embodies different mission statements that differ them from each other outside of the physical technology that they produce. While the majority of manufacturers share modern features amongst their production of cameras, some specialize in specific details either physically on camera or within the system and image quality.

A Nikon D200 camera with a Nikon 17-55 mm / 2,8 G AF-S DX IF-ED lens and a Nikon SB-800 flash. Flashes are used as attachment to a camera to provide light to the image, timed with the shutter of the camera.

Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 lens mounted on a Canon 7D camera body. Lenses of varying lengths can be equipped onto main camera bodies to provide different perspectives for an image taken.

Sales of traditional digital cameras have declined due to the increasing use of smartphones for casual photography, which also enable easier manipulation and sharing of photos through the use of apps and web-based services. "Bridge cameras", in contrast, have held their ground with functionality that most smartphone cameras lack, such as optical zoom and other advanced features.

In response to the convenience and flexibility of smartphone cameras, some manufacturers produced "smart" digital cameras that combine features of traditional cameras with those of a smartphone. In 2012, Nikon and Samsung released the Coolpix S800c and Galaxy Camera, the first two digital cameras to run the Android operating system. Since this software platform is used in many smartphones, they can integrate with some of the same services (such as e-mail attachments, social networks and photo sharing sites) that smartphones do and use other Android-compatible software.

In an inversion, some phone makers have introduced smartphones with cameras designed to resemble traditional digital cameras. Nokia released the 808 PureView and Lumia 1020 in 2012 and 2013; the two devices respectively run the Symbian and Windows Phone operating systems, and both include a 41-megapixel camera (along with a camera grip attachment for the latter).Galaxy S4 Mini with the Galaxy Camera.Leica fixed lens equivalent of 28 mm at F2.8, can take RAW image and 4K video, has 21 mm thickness.Huawei P20 Pro is an android Oreo 8.1 has triple Leica lenses in the back of the smartphone with 40MP 1/1.7" RGB sensor as first lens, 20MP 1/2.7" monochrome sensor as second lens and 8MP 1/4" RGB sensor with 3x optical zoom as third lens.bokeh image with larger high dynamic range, whereas combination of mega pixel first lens and optical zoom will produce maximum 5x digital zoom without loss of quality by reducing the image size to 8MP.

After a big dip of sales in 2012, consumer digital camera sales declined again in 2013 by 36 percent. In 2011, compact digital cameras sold 10 million per month. In 2013, sales fell to about 4 million per month. DSLR and MILC sales also declined in 2013 by 10–15% after almost ten years of double digit growth.

Film camera sales hit their peak at about 37 million units in 1997, while digital camera sales began in 1989. By 2008, the film camera market had died and digital camera sales hit their peak at 121 million units in 2010. In 2002, cell phones with an integrated camera had been introduced and in 2003 the cell phone with an integrated camera had sold 80 million units per year. By 2011, cell phones with an integrated camera were selling hundreds of millions per year, which were causing a decline in digital cameras. In 2015, digital camera sales were 35 million units or only less than a third of digital camera sales numbers at their peak and also slightly less than film camera sold number at their peak.

Early cameras used the PC serial port. USB is now the most widely used method (most cameras are viewable as USB mass storage), though some have a FireWire port. Some cameras use USB PTP mode for connection instead of USB MSC; some offer both modes.

Other cameras use wireless connections, via Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi, such as the Kodak EasyShare One. Wi-Fi integrated Memory cards (SDHC, SDXC) can transmit stored images, video and other files to computers or smartphones. Mobile operating systems such as Android allow automatic upload and backup or sharing of images over Wi-Fi to photo sharing and cloud services.

Cameras with integrated Wi-Fi or specific Wi-Fi adapters mostly allow camera control, especially shutter release, exposure control and more (tethering) from computer or smartphone apps additionally to the transfer of media data.

Cameraphones and some high-end stand-alone digital cameras also use cellular networks to connect for sharing images. The most common standard on cellular networks is the MMS Multimedia Messaging Service, commonly called "picture messaging". The second method with smartphones is to send a picture as an email attachment. Many old cameraphones, however, do not support email.

A common alternative is the use of a card reader which may be capable of reading several types of storage media, as well as high speed transfer of data to the computer. Use of a card reader also avoids draining the camera battery during the download process. An external card reader allows convenient direct access to the images on a collection of storage media. But if only one storage card is in use, moving it back and forth between the camera and the reader can be inconvenient. Many computers have a card reader built in, at least for SD cards.

Many modern cameras support the PictBridge standard, which allows them to send data directly to a PictBridge-capable computer printer without the need for a computer.

An instant-print camera, is a digital camera with a built-in printer.instant camera which uses instant film to quickly generate a physical photograph. Such non-digital cameras were popularized by Polaroid with the SX-70 in 1972.

Many digital cameras include a video output port. Usually sVideo, it sends a standard-definition video signal to a television, allowing the user to show one picture at a time. Buttons or menus on the camera allow the user to select the photo, advance from one to another, or automatically send a "slide show" to the TV.

In January 2008, Silicon Image announced a new technology for sending video from mobile devices to a television in digital form. MHL sends pictures as a video stream, up to 1080p resolution, and is compatible with HDMI.

Some DVD recorders and television sets can read memory cards used in cameras; alternatively several types of flash card readers have TV output capability.

Cameras can be equipped with a varying amount of environmental sealing to provide protection against splashing water, moisture (humidity and fog), dust and sand, or complete waterproofness to a certain depth and for a certain duration. The latter is one of the approaches to allow underwater photography, the other approach being the use of waterproof housings. Many waterproof digital cameras are also shockproof and resistant to low temperatures.

Some waterproof cameras can be fitted with a waterproof housing to increase the operational depth range. The Olympus "Tough" range of compact cameras is an example.

Many digital cameras have preset modes for different applications. Within the constraints of correct exposure various parameters can be changed, including exposure, aperture, focusing, light metering, white balance, and equivalent sensitivity. For example, a portrait might use a wider aperture to render the background out of focus, and would seek out and focus on a human face rather than other image content.

Vendors implement a variety scene modes in cameras" firmwares for various purposes, such as a "landscape mode" which prevents focusing on rainy and/or stained window glass such as a windshield, and a "sports mode" which reduces motion blur of moving subjects by reducing exposure time with the help of increased light sensitivity. Firmwares may be equipped with the ability to select a suitable scene mode automatically through artificial intelligence.

Many camera phones and most stand alone digital cameras store image data in flash memory cards or other removable media. Most stand-alone cameras use SD format, while a few use CompactFlash or other types. In January 2012, a faster XQD card format was announced.hot-swappable memory slots. Photographers can swap one of the memory card with camera-on. Each memory slot can accept either Compact Flash or SD Card. All new Sony cameras also have two memory slots, one for its Memory Stick and one for SD Card, but not hot-swapable.

The approximate count of remaining photos until space exhaustion is calculated by the firmware throughout use and indicated in the viewfinder, to prepare the user for an impending necessary hot swap of the memory card, and/or file offload.

A few cameras used other removable storage such as Microdrives (very small hard disk drives), CD single (185 MB), and 3.5" floppy disks (e. g. Sony Mavica). Other unusual formats include:

Onboard (internal) flash memory — Cheap cameras and cameras secondary to the device"s main use (such as a camera phone). Some have small capacities such as 100 Megabytes and less, where intended use is buffer storage for uninterrupted operation during a memory card hot swap.

Most manufacturers of digital cameras do not provide drivers and software to allow their cameras to work with Linux or other free software.USB mass storage and/or Media Transfer Protocol, and are thus widely supported. Other cameras are supported by the gPhoto project, and many computers are equipped with a memory card reader.

Many cameras, especially high-end ones, support a raw image format. A raw image is the unprocessed set of pixel data directly from the camera"s sensor, often saved in a proprietary format. Adobe Systems has released the DNG format, a royalty-free raw image format used by at least 10 camera manufacturers.

Other formats that are used in cameras (but not for pictures) are the Design Rule for Camera Format (DCF), an ISO specification, used in almost all camera since 1998, which defines an internal file structure and naming. Also used is the Digital Print Order Format (DPOF), which dictates what order images are to be printed in and how many copies. The DCF 1998 defines a logical file system with 8.3 filenames and makes the usage of either FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 or exFAT mandatory for its physical layer in order to maximize platform interoperability.

Most cameras include Exif data that provides metadata about the picture. Exif data may include aperture, exposure time, focal length, date and time taken. Some are able to tag the location.

The filesystem in a digital camera contains a DCIM (Digital Camera IMages) directory, which can contain multiple subdirectories with names such as "123ABCDE" that consist of a unique directory number (in the range 100...999) and five alphanumeric characters, which may be freely chosen and often refer to a camera maker. These directories contain files with names such as "ABCD1234.JPG" that consist of four alphanumeric characters (often "100_", "DSC0", "DSCF", "IMG_", "MOV_", or "P000"), followed by a number. Handling of directories with possibly user-created duplicate numbers may vary among camera firmwares.

To enable loading many images in miniature view quickly and efficiently, and to retain meta data, some vendors" firmwares generate accompanying low-resolution thumbnail files for videos and raw photos. For example, those of Canon cameras end with .THM.

Digital cameras have become smaller over time, resulting in an ongoing need to develop a battery small enough to fit in the camera and yet able to power it for a reasonable length of time.

The most common class of battery used in digital cameras is proprietary battery formats. These are built to a manufacturer"s custom specifications. Almost all proprietary batteries are lithium-ion. In addition to being available from the OEM, aftermarket replacement batteries are commonly available for most camera models.

Digital cameras that utilize off-the-shelf batteries are typically designed to be able to use both single-use disposable and rechargeable batteries, but not with both types in use at the same time. The most common off-the-shelf battery size used is AA. CR2, CR-V3 batteries, and AAA batteries are also used in some cameras. The CR2 and CR-V3 batteries are lithium based, intended for a single use. Rechargeable RCR-V3 lithium-ion batteries are also available as an alternative to non-rechargeable CR-V3 batteries.

When digital cameras became common, many photographers asked whether their film cameras could be converted to digital. The answer was not immediately clear, as it differed among models. For the majority of 35 mm film cameras the answer is no, the reworking and cost would be too great, especially as lenses have been evolving as well as cameras. For most a conversion to digital, to give enough space for the electronics and allow a liquid crystal display to preview, would require removing the back of the camera and replacing it with a custom built digital unit.

Many early professional SLR cameras, such as the Kodak DCS series, were developed from 35 mm film cameras. The technology of the time, however, meant that rather than being digital "backs" the bodies of these cameras were mounted on large, bulky digital units, often bigger than the camera portion itself. These were factory built cameras, however, not aftermarket conversions.

A few 35 mm cameras have had digital camera backs made by their manufacturer, Leica being a notable example. Medium format and large format cameras (those using film stock greater than 35 mm), have a low unit production, and typical digital backs for them cost over $10,000. These cameras also tend to be highly modular, with handgrips, film backs, winders, and lenses available separately to fit various needs.

The very large sensor these backs use leads to enormous image sizes. For example, Phase One"s P45 39 MP image back creates a single TIFF image of size up to 224.6 MB, and even greater pixel counts are available. Medium format digitals such as this are geared more towards studio and portrait photography than their smaller DSLR counterparts; the ISO speed in particular tends to have a maximum of 400, versus 6400 for some DSLR cameras. (Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and Nikon D3S have ISO 12800 plus Hi-3 ISO 102400 with the Canon EOS-1Dx"s ISO of 204800).

In the industrial and high-end professional photography market, some camera systems use modular (removable) image sensors. For example, some medium format SLR cameras, such as the Mamiya 645D series, allow installation of either a digital camera back or a traditional photographic film back.

Most earlier digital camera backs used linear array sensors, moving vertically to digitize the image. Many of them only capture grayscale images. The relatively long exposure times, in the range of seconds or even minutes generally limit scan backs to studio applications, where all aspects of the photographic scene are under the photographer"s control.

Since it is much easier to manufacture a high-quality linear CCD array with only thousands of pixels than a CCD matrix with millions, very high resolution linear CCD camera backs were available much earlier than their CCD matrix counterparts. For example, you could buy an (albeit expensive) camera back with over 7,000 pixel horizontal resolution in the mid-1990s. However, as of 2004

Most modern digital camera backs use CCD or CMOS matrix sensors. The matrix sensor captures the entire image frame at once, instead of incrementing scanning the frame area through the prolonged exposure. For example, Phase One produces a 39 million pixel digital camera back with a 49.1 x 36.8 mm CCD in 2008. This CCD array is a little smaller than a frame of 120 film and much larger than a 35 mm frame (36 x 24 mm). In comparison, consumer digital cameras use arrays ranging from 36 x 24 mm (full frame on high end consumer DSLRs) to 1.28 x 0.96 mm (on camera phones) CMOS sensor.

There are several reasons someone might want to invest in a car camera. Often, these cameras are able to capture video evidence in the event of a crash or parking incident while providing better rearview vision. Other important features are added to some cameras, making them more functional and appealing.

If you’re in the market for a car camera, you’ll need to decide whether you simply want the unit to replace your rearview mirror or if you want it to have both front and rear view capabilities. There are even dual car cameras out there that provide a view of the car’s inner cabin. This is handy if you have small children in the back that you need to keep an eye on.

Look for a car camera that produces crystal-clear images at a distance. These cameras need to support at least 1080p video recording in order to be able to identify license plate numbers and street signs. Grainy videos and videos that skip aren’t worth it.

Consider opting for a car camera that comes with a GPS function. Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers will find this feature invaluable. When engaged, the GPS will record your speed and location data and display it on your dash cam.

Review the car camera’s features to make sure they meet your needs. A few common features include loop recording, emergency recording, time-lapse, 24-hour parking monitoring and even parking assist. There are also cameras with large LCD screens and 170-degree viewing angles.

Look for any extras that may set one car camera apart from another. For example, there are car cameras that connect to an app on your phone and allow you to share videos and images on social media, as well as cameras that respond to voice commands so you can use them hands-free.