Question: how do old fashoioned cameras work?

Sean Clement answered on 22 Jun 2011:

Well, by old fashioned, you mean film, yeah? They work like this: The film that you get for cameras is sensitive to light, and when ‘exposed’ to it for a short time, it can capture an image of whatever objects it was exposed to (because of the light being reflected off the objects and into the camera) . It can only be exposed to a little bit of light though, because too much can ruin the film, leaving it overexposed.

So, how do cameras make this happen? Well, when you point a camera at something and look through the lens at it, what you see is what the film is going to be exposed to once you press the button on the camera to take a film. When you press the button, a tiny mirror moves in the camera to reflect the image onto the film causing the exposure. It only does this for a split second though so as to not let in too much light and ruin the photo. Once the mirror has moved back, the exposed film is moved along so that another photo can be taken on a new piece of film. Digital cameras work on similar principles but use light sensors and memory cards instead of film…

I hope this answers your question but let me know in the comments section if you don’t understand!