digital cameras - jargon buster

Anti-Shake

This is the latest technology and is extremely desirable on a digital camera. Although it can never completely eliminate blurry photos, it can increase your chances of taking a reasonable photo in poorer light.

Aperture

This is the opening inside the lens that is capable of varying the amount of light entering the camera. Aperture diameter is expressed in f-stops. (f stops/f number= focal length.) The lower the number, the larger the aperture opening, so f2.8 is a larger light opening than f8. The advantage of a large light opening, Is that this will allow the camera to operate In lower light conditions without using flash.

Aperture Priority

Where the lens aperture is set and the camera automatically selects the appropriate shutter speed. This gives the creative photographer a useful tool to have more control over the camera.

Backing up

Making a copy of your precious image files, either to your computer or to a portable memory device, so that you don’t lose them.

Buffer

A temporary camera storage area. So a camera with a large internal buffer will be able to write your images to your memory card more quickly and will enable you to take photos in rapid succession.

Charging dock

Some digital cameras come with a charging dock onto which the camera can be placed. The dock allows easy connection to your computer for transferring images and may provide connection to a power supply for recharging the cameras batteries. Some docks also have the facility to print.

Compact camera

This term applies to any camera that is at least pocketable. The fashion at the moment is to very small size and to use internal zoom technology. This means the zooming lens does not stick out from the camera, taking up extra room, but works internally like a periscope.

Compact Flash

The largest of all the memory cards, available with huge capacities but mainly now only geared to the larger cameras and SLR types. Some cameras have the ability to take Compact Flash cards and another type of memory card.

Digital zoom

This is an undesirable function. The camera's software will electronically enlarge part of the image like an optical zoom but without the quality. Use at your peril! In a way, the camera is guessing what the subject looks like closer up.

Dual-Format cards

SD and MMC are dual-format memory cards. They are popular and readily available as they are also used in some mobile phones.

EVF

Electronic View-Finder

Fixed lens

A lens without a zoom. Only desirable if it is of the very wide angle variety and your interest is landscape photography. Without a zoom lens your photography will be very restricted.

Flash

Cameras that have a flash have the ability to give a brief burst of very bright light to illuminate the subject. Cameras without inbuilt flash are very restricted to good lighting only and are not popular, except for very basic ones.

Internal memory

The larger the internal memory a camera has, the more images you can store on the camera without having to insert your memory card. Cameras with internal memory alone are not as convenient as cameras with memory cards as you are forced to physically connect your camera to your computer every time you wish to download your images.

Jpeg/Tiff files

Jpeg files are the most common digital camera choice of image file format. Jpeg files are compressed digital files and can vary in quality. The least compression offers the best quality but, for the ultimate, you can save the file as a Tiff, which is a non-compressed file format. File sizes vary according to compression and non-compressed files.

Macro Mode

A close-up picture-taking ability. Some cameras have the ability to focus on a subject as little as 1cm from the lens. If you love taking close-ups of flowers or insects you need this on a camera. The symbol on the camera is usually a flower.

Megapixel

One million pixels. You should only consider a camera with at least 3 million pixels if you want to see you images as you remember the original scenes!

Memory Card

A camera image storage card that can come in many formats. The card is inserted into the camera so that it can store your photos. Then it is removed for downloading onto your computer or for digital printing. See also downloading, Pictbridge and card reader.

Memory Stick

A type of memory card developed by Sony, reminiscent of a stick of chewing gum! Also available in high capacity PRO and DUO Formats. Mainly featured in Sony cameras, although Samsung have some cameras that also use this format.

Optical zoom

This is a very desirable function. It allows the camera's lens to change smoothly from a long shot to a close-up or vice versa by varying the focal length. The bigger the quoted optical zoom the nearer to the subject you will be able to get without physically moving. Three times (usually shown as x3) optical zoom is the norm, so anything over this is a bonus.

PictBridge

Pictbridge is a printing protocol that allows a digital camera to connect directly to an enabled printer. (usually via a supplied USB cable.) Options such as tagging for print, quantity and quality can be selected on the camera (via the camera's LCD screen) for easy PC free printing.

Pixels

An abbreviation of ‘picture element’ and is a minute area of illumination on a digital display screen. A megapixel camera has one million light-sensitive pixels.

Portable storage media

The latest portable storage devices come with huge memory capacities and can even have a viewing screen. This means you can download your images from your memory card to them and store them. Think of them as electronic photo albums. See also Memory card

RAW

An image format where the camera does not alter the data or process it. This format needs to be processed by you when downloaded from the camera. Not many printers can at present interpret the data in RAW image files as the data is specific to the camera.

Red-eye, Anti-Red-eye, Red-eye Reduction

The nasty bright red-eye phenomenon seen on images where a flash has picked up the reflection of the back of the person’s retina and given them the possessed look! Anti-red-eye is either a special kind of flash (usually two flashes) or a red beam that shines out from the camera. Some cameras have in-camera processing where redeye is identified and removed.

Secure Digital

Shortened to SD, this is a memory card about the size of a postage stamp and is very popular. SD cards come in a range of memory capacities now up to 4 gigabytes. This means it can store thousands of images.

Sensitivity

This is a measure of the camera’s ability to respond to light.

Shutter Priority

This is a system used in cameras in which the shutter speed is selected by the user and the appropriate aperture is then set by the camera. This feature is for creative and advanced photographers.

Snapshot Mode

Usually a totally automatic mode, where all the user has to do is press the shutter to take a photo.

Sports Mode

A nice feature on a camera, which enables you to set a fast shutter speed (and appropriate aperture) to freeze fast action.

USB

Universal Serial Bus, the most common type of connection on digital cameras. USB2 is the latest faster version.

White Balance

Cameras have to deal with various lighting situations and this is a function that compensates for different colours of light. For instance, household lighting is very different from sunshine; some cameras read the colour of the light and adjust automatically to compensate.

WiFi enabled

This is the most recent new technology for cameras and means a WiFi equipped camera can download its images wirelessly to either your WiFi enabled computer or to a WiFi printer. No wires! No leads! No connectors!

XD Card

Developed by Fuji and Olympus, this card is seriously tiny, but still can have a huge storage capacity.