Cameras

A unique sensor size used by Canon in its PowerShot G1 X II compact camera. It’s just a little smaller than the APS-C format used by most DSLRs and larger than the 1 inch sensors used in other high-end PowerShot models, so it gets close to the quality of a good interchangeable lens camera.

Pivoting rear screen on a camera which can be flipped out sideways and angled up and down to allow shots to be framed with the camera at high or low viewpoints or from angles where it would be difficult to see the screen or viewfinder normally. Useful for video in particular but also stills photography.

The sensors in interchangeable lens cameras are prone to picking up specks of dust which appear as small black spots in your images. Sensors have anti-static coatings and sensor cleaning mechanisms designed to repel and shake off dust particles but they often persist despite this. They can be removed with manual sensor cleaning or by using dust removal tools in software.

An image effect common with electronic shutters, as used for both video and stills photography, so that although they offer even higher shutter speeds than mechanical shutters, they too capture image data in ‘strips’, and while they may offer an exposure time of, say, 1/32,000sec, it actually takes considerably longer for this electronic scanning process to complete. This can only be fixed by so-called global shutters, which capture data from the entire sensor area at once.

A focus mode for continuous shooting where the camera will release the shutter whether or not it has achieved focus on the subject. This can give faster and more consistent continuous shooting frame rates and does not necessarily produce more focus errors.

A made-up word to describe somebody mid-way between an amateur photographer (consumer) and professional (prosumer). A ‘prosumer’ has typically gone beyond snapshot photography, has become interested in photography as a hobby or ultimately a profession, and has a certain amount of technical knowledge.

A mode where the camera starts recording frames as soon as you half-press the shutter release and keeps recording frames in a kind of ‘rolling buffer’ all the time it stays pressed. When you press the shutter release the rest of the way, the camera incorporates these buffered shots into the burst sequence. You get to record action that has started even before you’ve had time to fully react.

The small difference in the relative positions of objects when seen from two slightly different positions. It’s not a problem in cameras with through-the-lens viewing, but is an issue with cameras that have separate ‘direct vision’ type viewfinders. These sometimes have parallax-adjusted framing guides for photographing objects close to the camera.

Sensors produce regular noise, caused by amplifying the signal at high ISOs or when brightening underexposed areas (shadow noise) but they also produce regular random electronic background noise which remains constant, and this is sometimes called the ‘noise floor’. It’s baseline level of noise, and any regular image noise is present on top of this.

Early mirrorless camera system launched by Nikon and based around a a 1-inch sensor size smaller than other interchangeable lens formats but with smaller camera bodies and, especially smaller lenses. It did not catch on and was discontinued a little later, though 1-inch sensors are still used today by Sony and Canon in compact camera models.

Some DSLRs have an LCD status panel on the top plate for basic shooting information, battery life remaining and other items. This uses a high-contrast display with no backlighting to save power, but it can be hard to see in dim light, so there’s usually a backlight switch too.

Where the shot is taken with the camera held horizontally – pictures are wider than they are tall. As opposed to ‘portrait format’, where the camera is held vertically for photos that are taller than they are wide.

The lens mount used by all current Pentax DSLR cameras and a development of the Pentax K bayonet mount used in its later film SLRs. The mount is the same, but some lenses are made for Pentax full frame DSLRs while others are solely for the smaller APS-C format cameras.

Some cameras have in-built flash memory for storing photos and videos, often in addition to a memory card slot for removable storage. 

Digital cameras offer a choice of image sizes. Normally, you’d choose ‘Large’, which gives you the maximum resolution offered by the sensor. But most cameras also offer ‘Medium’ settings (around half the pixels) and ‘Small’ (around a quarter the pixels).

More advanced type of compact camera which attempts to match the controls and features of a digital SLR or mirrorless camera but in a smaller body. High-end compacts have larger sensors than regular point-and-shoot models and better lenses with wider maximum apertures.

An option in a camera’s continuous shooting mode where the camera will only release the shutter when it’s achieved focus. This can reduce the speed at which frames are captured but should ensure that more are in focus. 

Shooting a series of identical frames with slightly different focus points with the intention of picking the best one later or, usually, to use ‘focus stacking’ software to merge them into a single image with much more depth of field than can be achieved with a single shot. 

An autofocus technology developed by Canon that aims to deliver the speed and responsiveness of phase detection autofocus using only the camera sensor and not a separate phase detection sensor. This has many advantages for mirrorless cameras and DSLRs being used in live view mode. Effectively, the photosites on Canon’s sensor are split into two, and the two ‘halves’ can be used to measure the distance of the subject by how much the two halves are ‘out of phase’. Other makers have their own on-sensor phase-detection autofocus systems. This eliminates one of the few advantages of DSLR cameras over mirrorless models.

Many more advanced/professional cameras have two memory card slots not one. This can provide extra security where photos and video are recorded to both cards at the same time, overflow capacity for when the first card fills up or the separation of one type of file from another, such as RAW files and JPEGs or photos and video.

Zoom function that comes from blowing up the central part of a digital image, not by increasing the magnification of the lens. Digital zooms produce lower resolution and less detail, despite what the makers say.

Canon’s brand name for the image processors in its digital cameras. These take the raw data captured by the sensor and process it into image files as well as handling many of the camera’s internal functions. Other makers have their own brands of processor.

Most advanced cameras offer a custom settings menu for changing the behavior of the camera’s controls to better suit the way you like to work. For example, you might want to change the direction of the control dials, or the order in which bracketed exposures are taken.

A wheel on the camera body which you turn with a finger or your thumb to change one of the camera settings. The control wheel’s function will depend on the mode or function you’ve selected. More advanced cameras have two control wheels for quicker adjustments.

In continuous AF (autofocus) mode, the camera continually refocuses all the time you have the shutter button half-pressed or fully-pressed. It’s used in continuous shooting mode to keep moving subjects in focus as you follow them with the camera. Continuous AF mode may include subject tracking or predictive autofocus capability.

A rear LCD screen that can be flipped out and swiveled to face in any direction. This can be especially useful for filming video clips and for composing still images in confined spaces or at awkward angles. Some cameras offer tilting LCDs instead. These have a more restricted range of movements (up and down) but are still more versatile than regular fixed screens. An ‘articulating’ screen is essentially the same as a ‘vari-angle’ screen.

Taking the same shot at a series of different exposures with the intention of choosing the best one later or merging them together to create an HDR image. Most cameras offer an auto exposure bracketing option. You choose the bracketing interval (the difference between the exposures, typically 1EV) and the number of frames (usually 3, sometimes 5 or even 7). Some cameras offer other types of bracketing, e.g. white balance bracketing or even focus bracketing.

When you shoot RAW files you will be able to change the white balance setting later, but the camera will still store shooting settings you chose in the RAW file. When you open the RAW file in your software, it will read this embedded data and display it as ‘As Shot’ in the white balance settings. You can adjust the settings or apply a new white balance preset, and the ‘As Shot’ setting embedded in the file will still be available if you need to return to it later.

A sensor layout unique to Fujifilm which replaces the usual bayer pattern of red, green and blue photosites with a more ‘random’ arrangement. Fujifilm says this eliminates the need for a low-pass filter to combat moiré (interference) effects, resulting in sharper fine detail.

An extra-fast memory card format currently used only in the Nikon pro DSLRs. It’s about half the size of Compact Flash but has the potential for extremely high speeds – though it’s yet to be seen whether many other camera makers will adopt it.

Nikon’s name for its image stabilisation technology, as built into its DSLR lenses. Tiny gyroscopic sensors detect any camera movement during the exposure and instantly shift a group of internal lens elements to compensate and keep the image steady on the sensor.

A kind of on-screen spirit level that shows you when the camera is level. This can be useful in landscape photography, for example, when the horizon isn’t flat or visible. Some also have fore-and-aft levels to help avoid any tilt (and converging verticals) when shooting buildings.

These are an option on both DSLRs and in electronic viewfinders. You can use the grid to make sure horizons are level and buildings are vertical – some grids confirm to the ‘rule of thirds’ to help you get a satisfying composition.

The percentage of the scene shown by the viewfinder. In better DSLRs you see 100% of the scene that will be captured, but in cheaper models it might only be 95-97%. That small difference can lead to objects showing at the edge of the frame that you hadn’t realised were there.

Standard connection between cameras and computers, though these days most photographers would remove the memory card and use a card reader to transfer photos. USB ports can also be used for charging on some compact cameras and ‘tethered shooting’ on professional cameras.

A more advanced version of a point and shoot camera with a much longer zoom range and, sometimes, more advanced photographic controls. The 20x or 30x zoom range makes these cameras much more versatile, but they use small sensors so the picture quality is limited.

Pretty self-explanatory really – an LCD screen offering touch control for camera settings, setting the focus point, menus and more. These are becoming increasingly popular on compact cameras and mirrorless models as a way of supplementing or replacing knobs and dials.

Autofocus mode where you tap on a touch-sensitive screen to choose the focus point for the picture. Some cameras also offer a touch shutter option where tapping the screen not only sets the focus point but fires the shutter too.

A secondary white balance adjustment used alongside colour temperature for more complex light sources like fluorescent lighting. Colour temperature works across an amber-blue spectrum, while tint adds a green-magenta axis.

A close relative of the bulb (B) shutter speed setting and, like bulb mode, it’s used for long exposures. With time (T) exposures, though, you don’t hold the shutter button down all the time – you press once to start the exposure and a second time to end it.

One that tilts up and down but doesn’t flip out and rotate in all directions (an ‘articulating’ screen). Tilting screens are nonetheless useful for composing pictures with the camera at waist or ground level or above head height.

An image file format that uses ‘lossless’ compression but produces much larger files than JPEGs. It’s sometimes offered as a file format on more advanced cameras but it’s more useful later on as an image file format for image editing and manipulation on a computer.

A technique used by professional studio photographers where the camera is connected to a computer and the computer is then used for controlling the camera, checking pictures as soon as they’re taken and then correcting and enhancing them as necessary before saving.

A cable connector for socket external flash units that’s still found on higher-end cameras like pro DSLRs but is becoming less and less common as photographers switch to wireless flash systems. These are usually triggered by a ‘master’ unit attached to the camera.

A focus mode where the camera continually refocuses on a moving subject. The more advanced the AF system, the better it will be at keeping the subject in focus. It’s used mostly in continuous shooting mode for sports and action photography but can also be used for video.