How is physics involved in the application of cameras?

[parcerita]

So for a project I am asked to give examples of how cameras are used. Of course the obvious use is clear, but how else (hopefully physics involved ways) are cameras used?

Forgot to mention, my project is on photographic not digital cameras.

 

[DaveC426913]

What is the obvious use?

How many "flavours" of this obvious use can you think of?

 

[parcerita]

To me the obvious use is to take pictures. I really can't think of anything else a photographic camera is used for...

 

[ekrim]

High speed cameras have a lot of physics-oriented applications. We use a camera for PIV (particle image velocimetry), to detect scatter IR rays.

 

[Andy Resnick]

This may seem odd, but have you defined what a camera "is"? For example, most people assume a camera is a lens and detector (film or digital), because that describes what most people use.

But, it's possible to have a camera with no lens (camera obscura). Or a camera that looks at 1-d lines rather than 2-d images. Or a spectroscopic camera that measures spectra rather than images.

Once you see that a camera is a generic optical system, you can come up with all kinds of applications. Time-lapse photography, real-time image processing, (static) light scattering measurements... all can be done with a simple camera.

 

[DaveC426913]

To me the obvious use is to take pictures.

Yes but: of what?