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Comment by GJim | Hacker News Reader

"analog" cameras?

One brings to mind the common misconception of the young that all physical media (including dad's CDs) is analogue, and that 'digital' refers only to 'computer' data.

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I don't know if "the youth" are doing this, but if they are, the generation before probably bears a lot of the blame!

Digital Tax! Digital camera! Digital marketing! Digital distribution! Digital radio! Digital TV! Digital download!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:PrefixIndex/Digital

All of these had previously had a digital component to them. It was just the proximal user-facing part being digitised (or the introduction of a computer) that gave the marketing department license to use the word 'digital'. Maybe it was over-cooked a bit.

Analog in the sense that they are mechanical objects. I have never heard of analog CDs. Analog would be vinyl

What about a reflex camera with a CCD? It’s mechanical in that it moves the mirror out of the way to expose the digital censor. I’d call that a digital camera because the output is digital.

ETA: AAMOF, we called them Digital Cameras when they first arrived.

The sensor is not mechanical. That's why it is digital

Your comment has just proven my point!

But what's analog then? I don't think it's a misconception. If it's not digital (and film photography isn't) then it's analog.

CDs are digital because data is encoded as bits (square wave) that are read digitally. 0 and 1

No, analog in that they shoot in film, an analog chemical reaction - not digital

> I have never heard of analog CDs.

Laserdiscs are analog.

Yes, these are all analog cameras, are they not?

I learned the word 'analogue' as meaning something like 'there is a change in the medium in proportion to the signal being recorded'. And digital as 'the signal being recorded is transformed into a numerical value which is stored on the medium'. The consequence being that changes to the medium in the analogue domain (tape wear, attenuation etc) directly affects the signal, whereas in the digital domain the signal can potentially be re-created with no loss of fidelity.

I think chemical film process fits with that description.

What’s at the focal point? Film? Analog camera. CCD? Digital camera.

No. They are film cameras.

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