Video camera

A video camera is camera used to make electronic motion pictures. It captures moving images and synchronous sound. Early video cameras were all analog and most modern ones are digital. Analog video cameras produce signals that can be displayed with analog televisions. The signals can be shown at the time, or can be stored in an analog format on magnetic tape. Digital video cameras produce digital images.

Video cameras were invented early in the 20th century for television use, and by the end of the century, people could buy digital video cameras, which can almost immediately display the image. Video recorders that could record the image on magnetic tape were created in the middle 20th century.

At first, video cameras were large and expensive. Only professionals operated them. As the electronics industry advanced, and solid state circuits with transistors and microprocessors replaced vacuum tubes, video cameras became smaller and inexpensive. Now many mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices include video cameras. In addition, software is now widely available to edit or to compress the output from video cameras.