definition of a camera

[Randy Little <randyslittle@xxxxxxxxx>]

Why does the dictionary say a camera has to have a 5 things and 2 of those things HAVE to be separate?   ie an aperture AND and lens.  The definition seems very technical short sighted.   Now maybe I'm crazy but it seems to me they are saying a pin hole camera isn't a camera because it has no lens just an aperture.   Thats wrong no?  Yes?  technically?    Just seems odd to me.   

of course webster has a much simpler definition that still requires an aperture and a lens ????????

b :  a device that consists of a lightproof chamber with an aperture fitted with a lens and a shutter through which the image of an object is projected onto a surface for recording (as on film) or for translation into electrical impulses (as for television broadcast)

camera

 noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Device for recording an image of an object on a light-sensitive surface (see photography). It is essentially a light-tight box with an opening (aperture) to admit light focused onto a sensitized film or plate. All cameras have included five crucial components: (1) the camera box, which holds and protects the sensitive film from all light except that entering through the lens; (2) film, on which the image is recorded; (3) the light control, consisting of an aperture or diaphragm and a shutter, both often adjustable; (4) the lens, which focuses the light rays from the subject onto the film, creating the image; and (5) the viewing system, which may be separate from the lens system (usually above it) or may operate through it by means of a mirror. The camera was inspired by the camera obscura—a dark enclosure with an aperture (usually provided with a lens) through which light enters to form an image of outside objects on the opposite surface—and was developed 

  

Randy S. Little
http://www.rslittle.com/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2325729/