Understanding the features or functions of your digital camera can be confusing. This article contains common digital camera terms you should know. Keep reading for definitions on digital camera terms such as D-DLR, Pixels/Megapixels, ISO, Shutter Lag, LCD, RGB, and more...

Digital cameras have taken over the point and shoot market in the past decade. In fact, as you can glean from a trip to any electronics store or a quick web search, digital cameras now dominate the market and as prices have gone down and technology become more user friendly they are now ubiquitous.

D-SLR- (Digital Single Lens Reflex)

Once the domain of only the serious enthusiast or professional, digital SLR cameras have come down in price so much that many, from aspiring professional to a family photographer, find themselves in the market for one. The acronym SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex, which refers to a camera that uses the same lens for viewing and shooting. A mirror within the camera body reflects the image from the lens to the viewfinder. The mirror moves out of the way when the shutter button is pressed and the shutter opens, exposing the image sensor to light. D-SLR cameras are supremely functional and there are a wealth of accessories you can purchase to achieve your photography desires, including interchangeable lenses, special close-up and remote control devices, etc.

Pixels / MegaPixels

In digital imagining, a pixel is the smallest unit of information in an image. Each pixel is actually a small sample of the image and then the pixels are arranged to display the image, usually in a grid pattern. A megapixel is one million pixels. In digital cameras, the number of megapixels the camera is said to have can also express the number of image sensor elements in the camera. Sensor elements within a digital camera are often called "pixels" thought they only record one channel of color (only red, green, or blue). Depending on the setup of the camera's sensor, some colors may look fuzzier than others when blown-up, depending on the allocation of the primary colors of the sensor (more blue sensing elements than red, for example).

Focal Length

When parallel rays of light strike a lens focused at infinity (an extremely distant focusing point, for example the horizon), they converge to a point called the focal point. The focal length of the lens is then defined as the distance from the middle of the lens to its focal point.

Digital Zoom

Zoom effect in some digital cameras that is not true (optical) zoom, but is instead an enlargement of the information from the center of the image sensor.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization)

The sensitivity of the image sensor to light is commonly referred to as ISO. The term ISO comes from the system that devised to measure the speed of negative film. For example, a film rated ISO 400 is four times as sensitive to light as a film rated ISO 100. With most digital cameras, you will be able to adjust the ISO manually or the camera will have an automatic feature. A basic ISO guide is ISO 100 in bright sunlight, 400 on a dreary day, and 800 or 1600 indoors. In general, the higher the ISO, the lower the picture quality.

Shutter Lag or Lag Time

The time delay between pressing the shutter button on a digital camera and the exposure being made. The lag is longer for digital than for conventional cameras, as exposure, white balance analysis and focusing need to be performed.

Storage or Memory Card

A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices. Most current products use flash memory. There are a number of memory cards on the market, including the SD card (secure digital card), the CF card (CompactFlash card), the SmartMedia card, the Memory Stick, and the MultiMediaCard (MMC). These cards are of varying sizes, and each is available in a range of storage capacities that typically correspond directly to the price.

Image Resolution

The number of pixels displayed per inch of printed length in an image, usually measured in dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi) The amount of detail in an image depends on its pixel dimensions, while the image resolution controls how much space the pixels are printed over. You can modify an image's resolution without changing the actual pixel data in the image by changing the printed size of the image.

RGB - Red Green Blue

The Red Green Blue color model is one in which the three additive primary colors (red, green, and blue), are used to produce additional visible colors in an (in this case, digital) image. This color model is said to be additive in that the different spectrums of color are added together to produce the final spectrum of color. Digital camera image sensors often operate with some variation of the RGB model. In a Bayer filter arrangement, for example, green is given twice as many detectors as red and blue in order to achieve higher luminance resolution than chrominance resolution.

Burst Mode or Continuous Capture Mode

With this feature the user can take successive shots by holding down the shutter button. This mode is especially effective in an action situation.

Compression / JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPEG is an ISO standard for compressing still images and is a very popular format due to its variable compression range. JPEGs are saved on a sliding resolution scale based on the quality desired. For example, an image can be saved in high quality for photo printing or low quality for attaching to e-mails.

LCD - Liquid Crystal Display

LCD displays utilize two sheets of polarizing material with a liquid crystal solution between them. An electric current passed through the liquid causes the crystals to align so that light cannot pass through them. Each crystal, therefore, is like a shutter, either allowing light to pass through or blocking the light.