The
movie camera,
film camera or
cine-camera is a type of
photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on an
image sensor or on a
film. In contrast to a
still camera, which captures a single snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images; each image constitutes a "frame". This is accomplished through an
intermittent mechanism. The frames are later played back in a
movie projector at a specific speed, called the
frame rate (number of frames per second). While viewing at a particular frame rate, a person's
eyes and
brain merge the separate pictures together to create the illusion of motion.