There is certainly something about reality that cameras reflect, namely, that looking at the images they produce results in an approximation of seeing what one would see if one’s eye was where the camera was.

I suppose that goes without saying, seeing as that is sorta what cameras are (well.. many cameras. The central examples of cameras. IR cameras don’t quite have this property, but you know what I mean.), but sometimes it is “necessary to state tautologies” (though this isn’t a tautology exactly).

A linear representation of a group needn’t distinguish between every pair of group elements for me to say that it “captures” some aspect of the group.