| ADC |
Analog-to-digital converter. A device that converts analog video information (a photograph or video frame) into a series of numbers that a computer can store and manipulate. |
| Aperture |
The opening in a photographic lens that admits light. |
| CCD |
Charge Coupled Device. This is an image sensor that reads the charges from the sensor's photosites one row at a time. |
| CMOS |
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. An imaging system used by digital cameras. |
| Exposure |
The amount of light that reaches the image sensor. Exposure is controlled by a combination of the lens aperture and shutter speed. |
| Flash memory Card |
A memory card that uses Flash RAM to store digital information such as images or audio. |
| Flash RAM |
Flash Random Access Memory. A re-writable memory format often used for temporary information storage. |
| Interpolation |
A method used to increase the resolution of an image by adding pixels based on the value of the surrounding pixels. However, this method can cause artifacting and pixelation. |
| Mega pixels |
This is 1,109,000 pixels. |
| Mosaic |
A surface made by inlaying small pieces of variously coloured material to form pictures. |
| Photosite |
The small area on the surface of an image sensor that captures the brightness for a single pixel in the image. There is one photosite for every pixel in the image. |
| Semiconductor |
A component constructed using a semi-conductor material, such as a diode, photocell, thermistor, transistor, etc. |
| Sensor |
An electronic device that converts the light allowed in by the shutter to an electrical signal. |
| Shutter |
A camera attachment that exposes the film or sensor by opening and closing an aperture. |
| TIFF |
Tagged Image File Format. A loss-less uncompressed image file format that does not produce artifacts (such as are common with lossy image formats such as JPG). |
| USB |
Universal Serial Bus. High-speed port found on digital photography devices and newer computers that allows much faster transfer speeds than a serial or parallel port. |
| Zoom |
To focus a camera on an object using a zoom lens so that the object apparent distance from the observer changes. |
| Zoom lens |
A variable focal-length lens, used to magnify the target image. |
