Image Sensor
A camera's image sensor is what converts the visual image into an electric signal. Image sensors are mainly used in digital cameras, and they're what makes it possible for the camera to actually capture an image.
This camera uses a CCD sensor (charge-coupled device), the most common type of image sensor used in digital cameras. A CCD sensor helps turn what the camera sees into a digital image by taking the original light and breaking it down into a series of pixels. Like any camera, it uses a series of lenses that focus light in order to create an image of a scene, recording the light electronically and then converting it into digital data which then forms the image.
CCD sensors are superior to the other well-known type of image sensor known as CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor), which provides grainier, lower-pixel images. This is principally because CCD image sensors have nearly twice the dynamic range of CMOS sensors, meaning the range of dark and light values that can be recorded is much higher with a CCD sensor. Put simply, a CCD sensor will give you a brighter, clearer, higher-contrast image.