A camera is a device that captures images or video by letting light into a sensor or film through a lens. It can be built into phones or exist as a separate machine.
From Latin 'camera' meaning 'vaulted room' or 'chamber,' from Greek 'kamara' meaning 'arched roof.' Early photographic devices were called 'camera obscura' ('dark chamber') because they were literally dark rooms or boxes where images were projected. The word shortened to just 'camera' as devices became portable.
Every camera is a tiny dark room that traps light and freezes a moment. The name remembers a time when taking an image meant stepping into an actual dark chamber with a small hole to the outside world. Phones today still carry that ancient optical trick in miniature form in your pocket.
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