Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - camera

(cameras) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. A camera is a piece of equipment that is used for taking photographs, making films, or producing television pictures. Her gran lent her a camera for a school trip to Venice and Egypt. ...a video camera... They were caught speeding by hidden cameras. N-COUNT 2. If someone or something is on camera, they are being filmed. Just about anything could happen and we’ll be there to catch it on camera when it does. PHRASE: usu PHR after v, v-link PHR 3. If you do something or if something happens off camera, you do it or it happens when not being filmed. They were anything but friendly off-camera, refusing even to take the same lift. ...off-camera interviews. PHRASE: usu PHR after v, PHR n 4. If a trial is held in camera, the public and the press are not allowed to attend. (FORMAL) This morning’s appeal was held in camera... PHRASE: PHR after v