Editing Digital camera (section)

=== Methods of image capture ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=December 2019}}[[File:Ccd-sensor.jpg|At the heart of a digital camera is a [[charge-coupled device|CCD]] or a [[Active pixel sensor|CMOS]] image sensor.|thumb|upright]]
[[File:Partly disassembled Lumix digital camera.jpg|thumb|Digital camera, partially disassembled. The lens assembly (bottom right) is removed but the sensor (top right) can still capture an image, as seen on the LCD screen (bottom left).]]Since the first digital backs were introduced, there have been three main methods of capturing the image, each based on the hardware configuration of the sensor and color filters.

''Single-shot'' capture systems use either one sensor chip with a [[Bayer filter]] mosaic, or three separate image sensors (one each for the [[primary additive colors]] red, green, and blue) which are exposed to the same image via a [[beam splitter]] (see [[Three-CCD camera]]).

''Multi-shot'' exposes the sensor to the image in a sequence of three or more openings of the lens [[aperture]]. There are several methods of application of the multi-shot technique. The most common was originally to use a single image sensor with three filters passed in front of the sensor in sequence to obtain the additive color information. Another multiple-shot method is called [[microscanning]]. This method uses a single sensor chip with a Bayer filter and physically moves the sensor on the focus plane of the lens to construct a higher resolution image than the native resolution of the chip. A third version combines these two methods without a Bayer filter on the chip.

The third method is called ''scanning'' because the sensor moves across the focal plane much like the sensor of an [[image scanner]]. The ''linear'' or ''tri-linear'' sensors in scanning cameras utilize only a single line of photosensors, or three lines for the three colors. Scanning may be accomplished by moving the sensor (for example, when using [[color co-site sampling]]) or by rotating the whole camera. A digital [[rotating line camera]] offers images consisting of a total resolution that is very high.

Improvements in single-shot cameras and image file processing at the beginning of the 21st century made single-shot cameras almost completely dominant, even in high-end commercial photography.