WIA represents a camera device as a hierarchical tree of IWiaItem objects. The root item, returned from a call to the Microsoft Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) device manager IWiaDevMgr::CreateDevice method, is used to get and set device information, to control the device, and to begin device item enumeration.

The following diagram illustrates a sample camera implementation. The camera root item has three child items, two pictures and one folder. The folder has two child items, both pictures.