Common Digital Camera Terminology

Some Digital Camera Terminology

• 3x, 5x, 10x - Denotes the focal length ratio of a zoom lens (e.g. 35-105 is 3x, 38-380mm is 10x,divide the last number by the first).See also "Digital Zoom" and "Zoom Lens" below.

• AA cell - In the digital camera world this refers to the most common power source, the AA-size battery. See also "NiCd" and "NiMH".

• AC Power - Running your digital camera off the wall outlet power rather than by battery power. Usually means purchasing optional AC power adapter. Add-On Lens - Some lenses have filter threads on the front edge that allow you to mount an auxiliary wide angle or telephoto lens in addition to the standard lens.

• Add-On Lens - Some lenses have filter threads on the front edge that allow you to mount an auxiliary wide angle or telephoto lens in addition to the standard lens.

• AE - Auto Exposure, a system for automatically setting the proper exposure according to the existing light conditions. There are three types of AE systems: Programmed: where the camera picks the best shutter speed and aperture automatically; Aperture Priority: the user chooses an aperture value and the shutter speed is automatically determined by lighting conditions; and Shutter Priority: the user chooses a shutter speed and the aperture is automatically determined by lighting conditions

• AE Lock - The ability to hold the current exposure settings and allow you to point the camera elsewhere before capturing the image. This is usually accomplished by half-pressing the shutter button and keeping it at that position until you're ready to capture the image.

• AF - Auto Focus. A system that automatically focuses the camera lens.

• Algorithm - A mathematical routine that solves a problem or equation. In imaging, the term is usually used to describe the set of routines that make up a compression or colour management program.

• Anti-Shake - Konica Minolta's "Anti-Shake" feature is the mechanical shifting of the imager to compensate for camera movement and minimise blurring at lower shutter speeds. Putting this type of image stabilisation in the camera body of a dSLR means that it doesn't have to built into the lenses and therefore it makes them lighter and less expensive. See also "Optical Image Stabilisation" .

• Aperture - The lens opening formed by the iris diaphragm inside the lens.

• Aperture Priority AE - Exposure is calculated based on the aperture value chosen by the photographer. This allows for depth of field (DOF: Range of focus) control - large aperture = shallow DOF and a small aperture = deep DOF.

• Aspect Ratio - The ratio of horizontal to vertical dimensions of an image. The most common aspect ratio in digital cameras is 4:3 so that images "fit" properly on computer screens (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024). Some cameras offer a 3:2 mode so that you can print "perfect" 4x6" prints with no cropping necessary.(35mm film is 3:2, TV sets are 4:3, HDTV screens are 16:9)

• Aspherical Lens - A lens whose edges have been flattened so that it is not a perfect sphere, produces a superior image.

• Automatic Exposure - The camera automatically adjusts the aperture or shutter speed or both for the proper exposure.

• Autofocus - The camera lens focuses automatically, usually when the shutter release is half-pressed.

• AVI - Movie clip in Windows' AVI format. See "Movie clip" .

• AWB - Automatic White Balance. A system for automatically setting the white balance in today's digital cameras. See also "White Balance"

• B&W - Term used to mean black and white

• Back Lit - The subject is heavily lit from behind which generally causes it to be underexposed unless you use critical spot metering or use your flash

• Backlight - The illumination for a colour LCD display. Early colour LCD used high voltage fluorescent lamps, newer LCDs now use white LEDs which are much more energy efficient.

• Barrel Distortion - A common geometric lens distortion causing an acquired image to pucker toward the centre and be "rounded" along the outer edges.

• Bitmap - The method of storing information that maps an image pixel, bit by bit. There are many bitmapped file formats, .bmp, .pcx, .pict, tiff, .tif, .gif, and so on. Most image files are bit mapped. This type of file gives you the 'jaggies', when examined closely you can see the line of pixels that create the edges.

• Bleed - Printing term referring to an image or linked area that extends to the edge of the printed piece. Blue Tooth - The new wireless standard for connecting cameras, PDAs, laptops, computers and cell phones. Uses very high frequency radio waves.

• Blue Tooth devices when in-range (less than 30 feet) of each other easily establish a connection. BMP - BitMapped graphic file format popular with Windows computers. This is an uncompressed file format like TIFF.

• Borderless - Means a photo print with no border around it. Old term for this was full-bleed printing.

• Bracketing - see Exposure Bracketing

• Brightness - The value of a pixel in an electronic image, representing its lightness value from black to white. Usually defined as brightness levels ranging in value from 0 (black) to 255 (white).

• Buffer - A temporary storage area usually held in RAM. The purpose of a buffer is to act as a temporary holding area for data that will allow the CPU to manipulate data before transferring it to a device. Also see DRAM Buffer Burst Mode - The ability to rapidly capture images as long as the shutter button is held down. Also called Continuous frame capture.

• Byte - An ensemble of eight bits of memory in a computer.