This dissertation spans two topics relating to optical to near-infrared astronomical cameras built around Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs). The first topic is the development of a digital readout system for 10- to 30-kilopixel arrays of MKIDs. MKIDs are superconducting detectors that can detect individual photons with a wide range of wavelengths with high time resolution (\SI{2}{\micro s}) and low energy resolution. The advantage of MKIDs over other low temperature detectors with similar capabilities is that it is relatively straightforward to multiplex MKIDs into large arrays. All the complexity of readout is in room temperature electronics. This work discusses the implementation and programming of these electronics.

The second part of this work demonstrates the capabilities of the prototype optical and near-infrared MKID instrument with observations of pulsars. Detecting optical pulsations in these objects require high time resolution and low noise. The discovery of a correlation between the brightness of optical pulses from the Crab pulsar and the time of arrival of coincident giant radio pulses is presented. The search for optical pulses from a millisecond pulsar J0337+1715 is discussed along with a new upper limit on the brightness of its optical pulses.