DigicamHub

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Angle of view (also referred to as field of view) – the extent of a given scene that is imaged onto the image sensor of a camera.

Aperture – defines the size of the opening in the lens.

Autofocus (or AF) – a feature of most digital cameras that allows them to obtain (and in some systems to also continuously maintain) correct focus on a subject, instead of requiring the operator to adjust focus manually.

C

Card reader – a device, typically having a USB interface, for accessing the data on a memory card such as a CompactFlash, secure digital or Multimedia Card.

Charge-coupled device (CCD) – image sensor in a digital camera.

CompactFlash (CF) – uses flash memory in a standardized enclosure to store images in digital cameras.

D

Depth of field (DOF) – the distance in front of and beyond the subject that appears to be in focus.

Digicam – Digital camera.

Digital image editing – the process of altering digital images, whether they be digital photographs or other types of digitally represented images.

Digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) – a digital camera that operates on the same optical and mechanical principles as a modern electronic autofocus 35mm film single-lens reflex camera. The key difference is that the film is replaced with a CCD or CMOS image sensor plus accompanying electronics, thus creating images digitally in-camera, without the need to first chemically develop a latent image on film.

Digital zoom – a method of increasing the apparent focal length at which a photographic or video image was produced. It is accomplished electronically, without any adjustment of the camera’s optics, and no optical resolution is gained in the process.

DPOF (Digital Print Order format) – a format which allows the user of a digicam to define which captured images on the storage card are to be printed, together with information on the number of copies or other image information such as paper size, image title text, image orientation, contact information and more.

E

Electronic viewfinder (EVF) – a viewfinder where the image captured by the lens is projected electronically onto a miniature display. The image on this display is used to assist in aiming the camera at the scene to be photographed.

Exchangeable image file format (official abbreviation Exif, not EXIF) – a specification for the image file format used by digital cameras.

Exposure – specifies the amount of light which reaches the image sensor.

Exposure compensation – a technique to compensate a measured exposure level against other factors which may render a less-optimal image.

F

f-number – a ratio between the diameter of aperture and the focal length of lens (e.g. for 50 mm lens f/2 means that diameter of aperture is 25 mm).

Focal length – a measure of how strongly a digital camera optical system focuses or diverges light.

I

ISO speed – the amount of light needed to achieve a certain “quality” in the sense of a per-pixel signal-to-noise ratio.

J

JPEG – a commonly used standard method of compression for photographic images.

M

Megabyte (MB) – 1,048,576 bytes (1,024², 2²⁰) of storage memory.

Megapixel – 1 million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of sensor elements of digital cameras.

Memory Stick – a removable flash memory card format used in Sony digital cameras.

Metering mode – refers to the way in which a camera determines the correct exposure.

MultiMediaCard (MMC) – a flash memory memory card used to store images in digital cameras.

P

Photo sharing – the publishing or transfer of a user’s digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others (whether publicly or privately).

PictBridge – an industry standard from the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) for direct printing. It allows images to be printed directly from digital cameras to a printer, without having to connect the camera to a computer.

Pixel – (short for picture element, using the common abbreviation “pix” for “picture”) is a single point in a graphic image.

R

RAW image file – contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of a digital camera.

S

Secure Digital (SD) – a flash memory (non-volatile) memory card format used in digital cameras.

Sepia tone – a type of photographic image in which the picture appears in shades of brown, as opposed to grayscale in a black-and-white image.

Shutter speed – defines the exposure time i.e. the time for which the shutter is held open during the taking of a photograph to allow light to reach the sensor.

SmartMedia – flash memory card used in a digital camera.

T

Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF) – a file format for mainly storing images.

U

Universal Serial Bus (USB) - a serial bus standard to interface devices (e.g. to connect between a PC and a digital camera).

X

xD-Picture Card – a type of flash memory memory card, used mainly in digital cameras.

Z

Zoom lens – a mechanical assembly of lens elements with the ability to vary its focal length.

Source: Wikipedia. This glossary is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.