camera—A lightproof chamber or box in which the image of an exterior object is projected upon a sensitized plate or film, through an opening usually equipped with a lens or lenses, shutter, and variable aperture.

camera, aerial—A camera specially designed for use in aircraft.

camera, continuous strip—A camera in which a continuous-strip exposure is made by rolling the film continuously past a narrow slit opening at a speed proportional to the ground speed of the aircraft.

camera, copying—A precision camera used in the laboratory for copying purposes.

camera, horizon—In aerial photography, a camera used in conjunction with an aerial surveying camera in vertical photography to photograph the horizon simultaneously with the vertical photographs. The horizon photographs indicate the tilts of the vertical photographs.

camera, mapping; surveying—A camera specially designed for the production of photographs to be used in surveying. It is equipped with means for maintaining and indicating the interior orientation of the photographs with sufficient accuracy for surveying purposes. A mapping camera may be either an aerial mapping camera or a terrestrial mapping camera.

camera, metric—A camera constructed so that its geometric characteristics do not change from photograph to photograph and the image is as little distorted as possible, i.e., a camera whose calibration constants remain constant over long periods of time and which gives minimal distortion.

camera, multiple-camera assembly—An assembly of two or more cameras mounted so as to maintain a fixed angle between their respective optical axes.

camera, multiple-lens—A camera with two or more lenses, with the axes of the lenses systematically arranged at fixed angles in order to cover a wide field by simultaneous exposures in all chambers.

camera, multispectral—A camera designed for taking a number of pictures simultaneously, each in a different part of the spectrum.

camera, non-metric—A camera not designed specifically for use in photogrammetry and which produces relatively large distortions. These distortions are a result of the camera lens, the variable principal distance, as well as a lack of fiducials and a film-flattening mechanism.

camera, panoramic—A camera which takes a partial or complete panorama of the terrain. Some designs utilize a lens which revolves about a vertical axis; in other designs, the camera itself is revolved by clockwork to obtain a panoramic field of view.

camera, photogrammetric—A general term applicable to cameras used in any of the several branches of photogrammetry.

camera, rotating-prism—A class of panoramic camera in which a double dove prism in front of the lens system is rotated while the lens system itself remains fixed. This allows photographing through 180° or more.

camera, stereometric—A combination of two cameras mounted with parallel optical axes on a short, rigid base; used in terrestrial photogrammetry for taking photographs in stereoscopic pairs.

camera, terrestrial—A camera designed for use on the ground. See phototheodolite.

camera, trimetrogon—An assembly of three cameras equipped with wide-angle Metrogon lenses, in which one of the cameras is vertical and the other two are 60 degree obliques.

camera, zenith—A special camera designed so that its optical axis can be accurately pointed toward the zenith. It is used for the determination of astronomical control by photographing the position of the stars.

camera axis—A line perpendicular to the focal plane of the camera and passing through the center of the lens system.

camera calibration—See calibration, camera.

camera station [PHOTOGRAMMETRY]—The point in space, in the air, or on the ground, occupied by the camera lens at the moment of exposure; the exposure station.

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Source: NSPS “Definitions of Surveying and Related Terms“, used with permission.

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