Digital camera, English full name: Digital Still Camera (DSC), short name: Digital Camera (DC), short name of digital camera, also known as digital camera. Digital camera is a kind of camera that uses electronic sensors to convert optical images into electronic data.

According to the use, it is divided into: SLR camera, micro-camera, card camera, telephoto camera and household camera. The principle of digital camera recording images on film by silver bromide's chemical change is different from that of ordinary camera. The sensor of digital camera is a light-sensitive charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Before the image is transmitted to the computer, it is usually stored in a digital storage device (usually using flash memory; Floppy disks and rewritable optical disks (CD-RW) are rarely used in digital camera equipment.

Digital camera is a product integrating optics, machinery and electronics. It integrates the conversion, storage and transmission of image information, and has the characteristics of digital access mode, interactive processing with computer and real-time shooting. Light enters the camera through a lens or lens group, and is converted into a digital signal through an imaging element of the digital camera, and the digital signal is stored in a storage device through an image operation chip. The imaging element of a digital camera is CCD or CMOS, and its characteristic is that when light passes through it, it can be converted into electronic signals according to different light. Digital camera first appeared in the United States. More than 20 years ago, the United States used it to transmit photos to the ground through satellites. Later, digital photography was converted to civilian use and its application scope was continuously expanded.

The history of digital cameras can be traced back to the forties and fifties of the last century. In 1951, Ben Crosby's laboratory invented the video recorder (VTR), a new machine that can record the current pulses in TV broadcast on tape. In 1956, video recorders began mass production. It is regarded as the result of electronic imaging technology.

In 1960s, before astronauts were sent to the moon, NASA had to survey the surface of the moon. However, engineers found that the analog signal sent back by the detector was mixed with other rays in the universe, which was so weak that the receiver on the ground could not convert the signal into a clear image. So engineers had to find another way. After that, digital image technology developed faster, mainly due to the technological competition during the Cold War. These technologies are also mainly used in the military field, and most spy satellites use digital image technology.

As early as 1960s, the research and development of "CCD chip" began. In 1969, George Smith and Willard Boyle of Bell Laboratories combined videophone with semiconductor bubble storage technology to design "Charge “Bubble” Devices, which can conduct charge along the semiconductor surface of digital cameras, and took the lead in inventing the prototype of CCD devices.

At that time, the purpose of inventing CCD was to improve the storage technology, and the component itself was also used as a simple memory. Later, people realized that CCD can use photoelectric effect to shoot and store images.