Digital photography glossary

In this glossary you will find some digital photography terms and the abbreviations used in this site.

If you find a term in this site that put you any problems please Contact me and I will add it here.

A4 - this is from the ISO standard, widely used in Europe - 297x210mm, about 8"x12". This is the standard writing European paper. It is between the letter and the legal paper sizes.

A3 - is double in surface to the A4 above, - 420x297mm, about 16"1/2 x 11"3/4, close to a double page in a magazine.

Bridge camera - digital camera with wide range non interchangeable zoom lens, usually fitted with an EVF. It has an exterior resemblance of a DSLR camera. It was used in the film days for reflex cameras with non interchangeable zoom lenses, also known as ZLR - Zoom Lens Reflex.

DOF - depth of field

DR - dynamic range - a very important characteristic of a digital sensor - widely used in articles referring to the Fuji S3 Pro but in other places as well.

DSLR - digital single lens reflex camera - the term applies to cameras with genuine reflex viewing systems using a mirror in the optical path, not to the cameras using an EVF.

EVF - electronic viewfinder - similar with the one used in video cameras. The EVF was adopted for non DSRL cameras with wide range zooms. It has both advantages and problems but they will get better eventually.

FPS - frames per second

GB - Gigabyte - anywhere between 1 billion bytes to 1024 Megabytes, depending on the manufacturer of the device.

LF - large format - cameras that use film from 4"x5" to 8"x10"

mAh - milliAmpere hour - a measurement of the capacity of (rechargeable) batteries. Currently the highest capacity AA NiMh are around 2500 mAh.

MB - megabyte - the unit for storage devices. On a HDD 1 MB = 1048576 bytes and on a card 1 MB = 1 million bytes. This is due to the manufacturers idea on good marketing.

MF - medium format - cameras that use 120 type film, usually from 4.5x6 to 6x9, but do not forget the panoramic 6x17cm.

Mpx - megapixel = 1 million pixels.

SLR - single lens reflex camera - about classic cameras which shoot film, as opposed to DSLRs which are digital.