Mike D

When you take a picture with a digital camera the pictures can be stored as a few different kinds of files. These files are known as JPEG, TIFF, and RAW files and they are each different from the others. A RAW file is what the camera originally captures. The picture is totally unprocessed and it can either be turned into a JPEG or a TIFF file after it is taken. By saving this picture as a JPEG the image gets compressed by the camera and it can be saved to memory card and sent over the internet with ease. If it is saved as A TIFF file then the image can be compressed and not lose any of its quality, the only drawback is that the file is bigger than the JPEG.


There are also different types of sensors that are available for cameras that are known as CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)sensors. The jobs of each of these sensors is to take the light that is in the picture taken and transform it into an electrical signal to create the image on the camera. CCD's take the light received and pass all of it through its chip which then processes and displays the picture. CMOS on the other hand use a chip as well as transistors to process and display the image. CCD sensors use a lot more power than CMOS but produce a higher quality picture while the CMOS sensor uses less power and is usually much cheaper.