So you are a photography beginner and have decided you need a new digicam. I guess you're quite startled by all the different camera specs and features. So check out the chart below for brief explanation of the most important ones.
sensor | A silicon semiconductor designed to capture photons (light) and convert them into electrons. Digital camera image sensor designs are based on either CCDs or CMOS. The pixel count, or resolution, of an image sensor has a direct relationship to the size image file that will be created and to the appropriate use for that file. 10 mega pixel or more is a common sensor size nowadays. |
image sizes | depend on the sensor size (resolution) |
movie clips | Most digicams record movie clips with sound. Some high cameras even can record full HD clips. |
file formats | The three main file formats for digital photographs are RAW, TIFF and JPEG. Both RAW and TIFF formats do not apply any compression to the photo to save space on your memory card. When your camera saves a digital photo as a RAW or TIFF file (if it can), the photo includes all of the information captured by your camera's image sensor.JPEG is a far more common file format, and it does use compression. For best results you should use the RAW format. |
lens | A photographic lens (also known as objective lens or photographic objective) is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically. Prime (fixed) lenses have the advantage of being fast (bright) and very high quality by virtue of the fact that they can be designed just for that focal length. A zoom lens allows a choice from a continuous range of focal lengths. |
image stabilisation | Image stabilization helps to steady the image projected back into the camera by the use of a "floating" optical element—often connected to a fast spinning gyroscope—which helps to compensate for high frequency vibration (hand shake for example) at these long focal lengths. |
conversion lenses | Conversion lenses can be installed on some cameras with a built-in lens. They increase the capability of the lens you already have. There are three common types of conversion lenses: telephoto, wide angle and macro |
digital zoom | Digital zoom is accomplished by cropping an image down to a centered area with the same aspect ratio as the original, and usually also interpolating the result back up to the pixel dimensions of the original. It is accomplished electronically, without any adjustment of the camera's optics, and no optical resolution is gained in the process. In most cameeras digital zoom is up to 4x. |
auto focus | Autofocus (or AF) is a feature of optical systems 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. Good digicams have different features of the autofocus such as face detection, TTL, 1-point AF, etc.. |
focus modes | Single (or one) area focus — Camera focuses on a subject in the central area of the screen. Continuous autofocus — Focuses continually on a subject; useful when shooting slow moving subjects. Spot focus — Camera focuses on a very precise center area of the screen. Multi area focus — Camera automatically focuses using multiple focus points. Face-priority AF — Face-priority is a special digital detection program that scans for facial details. Manual focus camera is one in which the operator has to adjust the focus of the lens by hand. |
focus distance | determines the minimum focusing distance |
metering | In photography, the metering mode refers to the way in which a camera determines the exposure. Cameras generally allow the user to select between spot, center-weighted average, or multi-zone metering modes. With spot metering, the camera will only measure a very small area of the scene (between 1-5% of the viewfinder area). This will typically be the very centre of the scene, but some cameras allow the user to select a different off-center spot, or to recompose by moving the camera after metering. In center-weighed metering, the meter concentrates between 60 to 80 percent of the sensitivity towards the central part of the viewfinder. Multi-zone metering - the camera measures the light intensity in several points in the scene, and then combines the results to find the settings for the best exposure. |
iso sensitivity | Digital cameras have an ISO rating indicating their level of sensitivity to light. The lower the sensitivity, the better the picture, but more light is needed. ISO 100 is the "normal" setting for most cameras, although some go as low as ISO 50. The sensitivities can be increased to 200, 400, 800, or even 3,200 for low-light conditions. |
exposure compensation | Cameras include exposure compensation as a feature to allow the user to adjust the automatically calculated exposure. Compensation can be either positive (additional exposure) or negative (reduced exposure), and is commonly available in third- or half-step increments, usually up to two or three steps in either direction; some digital cameras allow a greater range. Camera exposure compensation is commonly stated in terms of EV |
exposure bracketing | Exposure bracketing feature allows you to automatically take two or four more pictures: one slightly under-exposed (usually by dialing in a negative exposure compensation, say -1/3EV, -1 EV, -2EV), and the second one slightly over-exposed (usually by dialing in a positive exposure compensation, say +1/3EV,+1 EV, +2 EV), again according to your camera's light meter. |
shutter speed | In digital photography shutter speed is the length of time that your image sensor ’sees’ the scene you’re attempting to capture. Shutter speed is measured in seconds - or in most cases fractions of seconds. In most high-end digicams shutter speed values vary from 15 to 1/3200 seconds. |
aperture | The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's degree of exposure to light. Typically, a fast shutter speed will require a larger aperture to ensure sufficient light exposure, and a slow shutter speed will require a smaller aperture to avoid excessive exposure. Exposure values vary from 2.8 to 22. |
modes | Digital cameras can have automatic, semi-automatic, and manual shooting modes. The automatic are: portrait, macro, sports, landscape, night etc. where you adjust the mode according to the scene you're shooting. In semi-automatic modes (aperture priority, shutter priority, programme) you adjust just one feature and the camera adjusts all the others in order to achieve right exposure. In manual mode you have full control over your camera and need to think about all settings including shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, flash etc. It gives you the flexibility to set your shots up as you wish. |
white balance | White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "color temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. The basic White Balance settings you’ll find on cameras - auto, tungscreen, fluorescent, daylight, cloudy, flash, shade and manual on high-end cameras. |
self timer | The main reasons a digital camera’s self-timer is used is to take photos of a group or scene, or when you want to take a self-portrait. The camera must be set on a tripod or level surface, then the self-timer released. When the shutter-button is pressed, the photo-taker scurries into position…hopefully before the shutter goes off. |
continuous shooting (burst mode) | Camera feature that allows a camera to take several rapid-fire exposures when the shutter button is held down. This feature is useful for shots where there is quick action and you want to take multiple shots. |
image parameters | The most common image parameters are: colour, black and white and sepia |
flash | Automatic mode — Flash triggers automatically when the camera determines more light is needed in a scene. Red-eye reduction — Fires the flash several times just prior to exposing a photo. Reduces the reflection in a subject’s eyes that causes red-eye. Forced (fill-in) flash — Keeps the flash on in situations where automatic mode would keep it off. Used when additional illumination is needed. Suppressed flash — Turns the flash off. Slow sync (also called night scene)* — Use to capture a dimly lit background at night. The flash fires briefly to light the foreground subject. Rear-curtain sync — Similar to slow synch but flash doesn’t fire until right before the shutter closes. Flash exposure compensation – Used to increase or decrease the output of the flash; not all digital cameras have this feature. |
hot-shoe | A hot shoe is a mounting point on the top of a camera to attach a flash unit. The hot shoe is shaped somewhat like an inverted, squared-off "U" of metal. |
viewfinder | A viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and in many cases to focus, the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the more complex single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main optical system. |
lcd monitor digicam specs photography beginner | Digital compact cameras allow you to use the LCD as a viewfinder by providing a live video feed of the scene to be captured. The LCDs normally measure between 1.5" and 2.5" diagonally with typical resolutions between 120,000 and 240,000 pixels. The better LCDs have an anti-reflective coating and/or a reflective sheet behind the LCD to allow for viewing in bright outdoor daylight. Some LCDs can be flipped out of the body or angled up or down to make it easier to take low angle or high angle shots. The main LCD is sometimes supplemented by an electronic viewfinder which uses a smaller 0.5" LCD. |
