A
grism (also called a
grating prism) is a combination of a
prism and
grating arranged so that
light at a chosen central
wavelength passes straight through. The advantage of this arrangement is that one and the same camera can be used both for imaging (without the grism) and spectroscopy (with the grism) without having to be moved. Grisms are inserted into a camera beam that is already
collimated. They then create a
dispersed spectrum centered on the object's location in the camera's
field of view.