Confused by all that jargon, all those terms, abbreviations and acronyms? Never fear, my jargon buster is here!
A
Aperture Please view my post on aperture
Aperture Priority; A semi automatic camera shooting mode which allows you to adjust the aperture, while the camera chooses shutterspeed.
APS-C Advanced Photo System type C. A type of camera sensor. Found in DSLRs
Autofocus (AF) Automatic focus. Pretty self explanatory
B
Bridge Camera Small non-interchangeable lens camera between compact and DSLR
Buffer Temporary in-camera storage, used while the image is written to the memory card
Burst Mode Continous Shots
C
CA Chromatic Aberration ‘purple fringing’. A unwanted effect occurring on all lenses to a certain degree, but some are more susceptible than others. Often found in areas of high contrast (differences between black and white)
CCD Charge coupled device, a sensor found in cheaper compact camera’s, usually those that are sub 5 megapixels. Very power hungry, they usually use 100 times as much power as CMOS sensors.
Compact Small camera, you can’t change its lens, otherwise known as point and shoot.
CMOS complementary metal oxide semiconductor; a type of imaging sensor, found in higher end compacts, and DSLRs
D
DSLR digital single lens reflex, camera type eg (Nikon D7000, Canon EOS 600D)
DSLT digital single lens translucent, camera type (eg Sony SLT- A77V, A65)
E
EV Exposure Value; calculated by adding ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed.
EXIF Exchangeable Image File, meta data that camera stamps on image, for example, setting and time of shooting
F
Focal Length Lens magnification. 50mm is considered normal (1x magnification) and each added 50mm increases the magnification by 1 (x). For example, 100mm is 2x 150mm is 3x etc
G
H
HD High Definition; generally a video term. 1920×1080 pixels = HD. Canon is working on a 4000 pixel video camera (correct at time of going to press).
HDR High Dynamic Range; Taking several images, 1 concentrating on the highlights, one the lowlights and the third on the midtones. Merged together, image has high detail. Requires editing program, but some cameras have in-camera HDR
Histogram Shows levels of exposures in pictures, found in editors (eg. Adobe Photoshop) and most cameras
I
IS Antishake, or Image Stabilization. An incamera feature helping avoid blur due to camera shake.
ISO International organization for standardization have adopted it, but it is not their acronym. Refers to light sensitivity. Darker the conditions, the higher the ISO required. Higher ISO also produces more grain (noise).
J
JPEG type of image file format. Acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. It is a form of lossy compression, meaning it loses detail when it makes the file smaller.
K
L
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
M
N
O
OLED Organic Light Emitting Diode. Often a type of screen.
P
Q
R
RAW Unprocessed image, from DSLR and DSLT’s
S
Shutter Speed Priority A shooting Mode where you decide shutterspeed, the camera handles aperture.
T
TIFF Tagged Image File Format, good high quality, but RAW is better for DSLR
TV No, not a television, TV is a term for Shutter Speed Priority. It is used on Canon cameras and stands for Time Value.
U
V
W
WB White balance, see my post on WB .
X
Y
Z
This post is still under construction, I will add more abbreviations and acronyms soon.
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