Technology / Digital Cameras Glossary

Megapixel (MP): One million pixels. The more megapixels a camera has, the higher its maximum resolution — and the better its potential picture quality.

Memory: Digital cameras store the photos they take to some kind of memory. In nearly all cases, this will be some kind of removable media. Many cams also include a small amount of built-in memory — . . . View Full Definition

Memory Stick: A memory card slightly smaller than a single stick of chewing gum. Like compactflash and smartmedia, it is flash-based storage for your photos.

Movie Mode: Most point-and-shoot digital cameras, and even a select number of newer digital SLRs, let you record video either as an MPEG movie or a Motion JPEG movie. Most record audio too. Although the . . . View Full Definition

Nickel Metal-Hybrid (NiMH): A type of rechargeable battery that can be recharged many times. Nimh batteries provide sufficient power to run digital cameras and flashes.

Online Photo Printer: A company that receives digital photos uploaded to its Web site, prints them, then sends the prints back by mail or courier.

Optical Zoom: The ability to magnify a subject for close-ups, by adjusting the camera's lens assembly (thus the name 'optical'). Most current digital cameras include an optical zoom lens of some kind. The . . . View Full Definition

Panning: A photography technique in which the camera follows a moving subject. Done correctly, the subject is sharp and clear, while the background is blurred, giving a sense of motion to the photo.

Panorama Shooting: Photographing several overlapping images in succession that can be joined in the computer using software.

Pictbridge: Pictbridge is an international direct-print standard adopted by most major manufacturers of digital cameras and photo printers. With pictbridge, you can connect a compatible camera to a pict . . . View Full Definition

Pixel: Short for 'picture element.' A digital camera's image sensor consists of millions of pixels, each one building up a tiny charge of electricity in response to the light it 'sees.' The more pi . . . View Full Definition

Playback Feature: Allows you to review your images after shooting.

Priority Modes: Aperture and shutter speed priority modes are a shortcut to easy exposure adjustment. To set exposure manually, you would need to adjust aperture and shutter speed settings separately. With . . . View Full Definition

Rangefinder Cameras: Show a slightly offset image because of different alignment of lens and viewfinder.

Raw Image Format: A mode found on digital SLRs (and a few point-and-shoot models) that allows all the digital data captured by a camera's image sensor to be stored without first being processed or adjusted by . . . View Full Definition

Red Green Blue (RGB): The three colors to which the human visual system, digital cameras and many other devices are sensitive.

Red-Eye: The red glow from a subject's eyes caused by light from a flash reflecting off the blood vessels behind the retina in the eye. The effect is most common when light levels are low, outdoor at . . . View Full Definition

Red-Eye Reduction: Minimizes the reflection from the camera's built-in flash.

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