Great Cameras

What is HD (High Definition) and how is it different from SD (Standard Definition)? HD has many times more pixels, which are the tiny dots or lights in a screen. True HD is 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels. Many non-professional cameras have a slightly different format, but that can be saved for later. SD has only a fraction of the pixels of HD at only 640 by 480. This is a significant difference when you multiply it out. HD has 2,037,600 pixels in every frame and SD has a mere 307,200 pixels so SD contains around 15% as many pixels as HD. Compare these two photos of the U.S. flag to see the difference. Photos taken by Timothy Mielke of Milky Way Productions.

Now what is the difference between CMOS and CCD. COMS chips scan a picture across the sensor in contrast to CCD chips which snap the entire frame in one shot. The CMOS gives a picture a slightly liquidly look when scanning cause the bottom of the frame is captured after the top. The primary advantage to CMOS is the energy usage. Since it doesn’t take the whole picture at once, it can save on battery power immensely.

CCD has a different approach to capturing a frame. CCD generally comes with three chips, one for each of the primary colors of the light spectrum, which work in sync. The down side to CCDs is they take more energy to operate. Even with this down side their advantages are great enough to be the dominate video camera chip. There biggest advantage is they don’t have the watery liquid effect when recording. Another advantage is the three individual chips. Since each color has its own chip dedicated just to it, the colors are crisper and cleaner.