Replies

Someone recently observed why cell phones can pick up pictures of some types of objects and not normal cameras.

It seems that it is because normal cameras are optical in nature and cell phones have CCD (Capacitive Discharge) imaging. That is the explanation but I don't totally understand it but I do know that the images on CCD cells are much more sensitive and give far better resolution on even normal objects.

First of all in digital photography, CCD stands for Charge-Coupled Device not Captive Discharge Imaging.

Secondly while digital cameras are better at picking up incidental light than photographic film cameras, cell phone cameras are no different than other digital cameras including digital video cameras (security cameras) in this respect and cell phone cameras are usually of a lesser quality than mid to upper range digital cameras – i.e. not as many pixels.

Lastly, highly sensitive, high-resolution CCD chips are very expensive and would not be found in any cell phone camera I know of and even a lot of professional photographers can’t afford them. For a digital camera to pick up an object like that, in the dark, would require the type of CCD chips that NASA uses.

But I will say that even the crappiest digital camera can download a picture to a computer where someone with a little time and minimal skills in Photoshop can make some really cool images.