How does a single lens reflex camera work?
When rays of light from a distant object reach the camera’s lens, those rays are spreading apart or “diverging.” You can understand this by following the rays of light from one spot on the object, say the tip of a person’s nose. The rays of light reflected from the nose spread outward in all directions and only a small portion of them passes into the camera’s lens. These light rays are diverging from one another as they travel. The camera’s lens is a converging lens, meaning that it bends the paths of these light rays so that they diverge less after passing through it. In fact, the lens bends the rays so much that they begin to come together or “converge” after the lens and all the rays of light from the person’s nose merge to a single point in space somewhere beyond the lens. Exactly how far from the lens the rays come together depends on the structure of the lens and on the distance between it and the person’s nose. When you focus the lens, you’re moving the lens so that the rays com
