camera

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   equipment for taking photographs

   I always have my camera with me.

2. 2
   noun

   A device for taking still or moving pictures or photographs.

   The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail. It’s therefore not surprising that most cameras mimic this arrangement.

3. 3
   noun

   The viewpoint in a three-dimensional game or simulation.

   If you're building a third-person game with enclosed or tight spaces, try to figure out up front what camera problems you will likely encounter. Use this identification process to influence the early building process.

4. 4
   noun

   television equipment consisting of a lens system that focuses an image on a photosensitive mosaic that is scanned by an electron beam

5. 5
   noun

   A vaulted room.

6. 6
   noun

   A judge's private chamber, where cases may be heard in camera.

7. 7
   name

   A surname.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin camera (“chamber or bedchamber”), from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “anything with an arched cover, a covered carriage or boat, a vaulted chamber, a vault”), of Old Iranian origin, from Proto-Iranian *kamarā- (“something curved”), from *kamárati, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kmárati, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂em- (“to bend, curve”). Doublet of chamber. (device): A clipping of camera obscura, from New Latin camera obscura (“dark chamber”), because the first cameras used a pinhole and a dark room.