Camera Terms and Acronyms for Dummies

Cpi2011 · Oct 11, 2011

Thank you so much for sharing your great list !!!

arkipix1001 · Oct 13, 2011

great share...keep it up...and thanx by the way

davidross349 · Nov 10, 2011

thanks..........

BuS_RiDeR · Nov 15, 2011

jamhassan said:
Still Cameras are measured by Mega Pixal How can we measure video Camera ?

Resolution? 1080i/1080p, 720i/720p and so on... Just a thought. Don't know the actual answer.

rkhan · Nov 17, 2011

Really great for a beginner like me ...Thank You.

dots · Nov 17, 2011

BuS_RiDeR · Nov 17, 2011

dots said:
POS

Now that's jut mean.... I know I'm not an expert, but I have more self-confidence than to consider myself a Piece of Sh@t. :lmao:

helenhall · Nov 28, 2011

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and I'm excited to be a part of it. I'm already learning so much from all of you!

rosettapedro · Dec 29, 2011

For you people that don't know the terms we use

. And yes some of these are going to sound stupid (the things in brackets are dummy definitions

, if no brackets then its just my definition) (Sticky much?)
Ambient Light
The available light completely surrounding a subject. Light already existing in an indoor or outdoor setting that is not caused by any illumination supplied by the photographer. [Light the photographer didn't create ie. Sunlight, lightbulbs already in the room etc.]
Angle Of View
The area of a scene that a lens covers or sees. Angle of view is determined by the focal length of the lens. A wide-angle lens (short-focal-length) includes more of the scene-a wider angle of view-than a normal (normal-focal-length) or telephoto (long-focal-length) lens. [What the lens sees, kind of like what you see when you look at something]
Aperture
Lens opening. The opening in a camera lens through which light passes to expose the film or sensor. The size of aperture is either fixed or adjustable. Aperture size is usually calibrated in f-numbers-the larger the number, the smaller the lens opening.[the f/ number thing, controls exposure and depth of field, also know as the blade things inside the lens]
Bokeh
The blurry part of the photo achieved with a narrow depth of field.
Bracketing
Shooting 3 or more shots with an equal stop difference between each one, usually used for HDR's
Chromatic aberration
Commonly seen as colour fringes at the edge of subjects caused by the inability of the lens to focus all wawelengths of light at a single focal point. Will also affect sharpness. Low dispersion glass is used to correct this. Canon L series, Nikkor ED, Sigma DG, Sony G, also labeled as APO.
Composition
The pleasing arrangement of the elements within a scene-the main subject, the foreground and background, and supporting subjects.[How you set up subject and props of the photo]
Crop Factor Sensor
Size of the sensor is smaller than a 35mm film frame. Most common crops are 1.3X, 1.5X (Nikon), 1.6X(Canon), and 2.0X(3/4ths systems)
Cropping
Printing only part of the image that is in the negative or slide, usually for a more pleasing composition. May also refer to the framing of the scene in the viewfinder.[Cutting out parts of the image by decreasing what you see on the sides]
Depth of Field
The amount of distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field depends on the lens opening, the focal length of the lens, and the distance from the lens to the subject.[Blurry Background]
Digital lenses
Canon S, Sony DT, Tamrom Di II, Sigma DC, Nikkor DX, Pentax DA - have a smaller image circle specifically designed for APS-C sensors. Not usable on full-frame
Exposure
The quantity of light allowed to act on a photographic material; a product of the intensity (controlled by the lens opening) and the duration (controlled by the shutter speed or enlarging time) of light striking the film or paper.[Brightness/Darkness of the final photo]
Exposure Compensation
a technique for adjusting the exposure indicated by a photographic exposure meter, in consideration of factors that may cause the indicated exposure to result in a less-than-optimal image.[adjusting the brightness of an image with one move]
Fast lens
Refers to a lens that has a very wide aperture ... ie f/1.8 or f/2.8
Fill flash
A technique used to to brighten shadow areas by using a flash.
Fisheye Lens
Lens that gives a 180 degree field of view
Flare
Internal reflection or scrattering of light from the lens elements. Usually manifesting itself as a bright image region, and/or a reduction in contrast and saturation. Lens hoods are used to shade the lens.
Focal Length
The distance between the film and the optical center of the lens when the lens is focused on infinity. The focal length of the lens on most adjustable cameras is marked in millimeters on the lens mount.[the amount of zoom of the lens, more mm more zoom]
Focus
Adjustment of the distance setting on a lens to define the subject sharply.[sharpness]Focus Point(s)
The dots/boxes inside your viewfinder where you select the camera to focus at, can be set to manual or automatic.
Full Frame Sensor
Size of the sensor is the same as a 35mm Film Frame.
Graininess
The sand-like or granular appearance of a negative, print, or slide. Graininess becomes more pronounced with faster film and the degree of enlargement.[Pixel dots on image from film]
Grey card
Usually a flat card coloured neutral grey having a 18% reflectance across the visible spectrum. Used to provide a standard reference for exposure. Also used for white balance.
Histogram
A graph Showing you if the image is under/over exposed.

Abrahamoloya · Jan 24, 2012

I mainly Uses Nikon camera and very much acquainted to the workmanship of the camera how ever I do not own a Nikon Digital SLR yet but I am planning to buy a D3X soon. My question is; is it possible for me to use my existing Nikkor Lenses on the Digital body?, I have a 24mm - 70mm f2.8 G ED, Nikon AF-S 70mm - 200mm f/2.8G ED VR II and other prime lenses. Please could you specifies for me which model of Nikkor lenses are compatible Nikon Digital body ?

milindayu · Jan 26, 2012

Thanks a lot great valuable post

hillaryclinton · Feb 1, 2012

Below is a list of acronyms you may see around overclock.net. This thread is to help members decipher commonly used (and maybe not so common) acronyms on OCN.

If you happen to find a new term not listed (even out of date), or know of a definition not given, please post it in this thread and I will update ASAP.

Thanks for your help.

---

1. AA: Anti Aliasing
2. ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
3. AF: Anisotropic Filtering
4. AFAIK: As Far As I Know
5. AGP: Accelerated Graphics Port
6. ALU: Arithmetic Logic Unit
7. AMD: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
8. API: Application Programming Interface
9. AS5: Arctic Silver 5
10. AC7: Arctic Cooler 7
11. ASAP: As soon as possible
12. ATA: Advanced Technology Attachment
13. ATAPI: Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface (EIDE)
14. ATX: Form factor was designed to replace the AT form factor
15. BGA: Ball Grid Array
16. Bios: Basic Input Output System
17. BB: Best Buy
18. Bit: Binary DigIT
19. BE: Black edition
20. BSOD: Blue Screen Of Death
21. BT: Big Typhoon (A heatsink made by TT)
22. BTDT : Been There Done That
23. C2D: Core 2 Duo
24. C2Q: Core 2 Quad
25. CAS: Column Access Strobe or Column Address Strobe
26. CBA: Can't be assed (Contributed by Nostrano)
27. CCC: Catalyst Control Center
28. CCD: Cold Cathode
29. CF: CrossFire
30. CFM: Cubic Feet per Minute
31. CGA: Color Graphics Adapter (4 Color)
32. CORE CLOCK SPEED: Speed at which a processor operates
33. CMOS: Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
34. Conus: Contiguous\\Continental United States
35. CPU: Central Processing Unit A.K.A. Processor or proc
36. CRT: Cathode Ray Tube
37. CS: Counter strike or Computer Science, depending on context.
38. CSAA: Coverage Sample Anti-Aliasing
39. CS:S: Counter strike Source
40. D3D: Direct3D
41. dB: decibels
42. DODS: Day of Defeat Source
43. DD: Danger Den [Store to buy Overclocking gear]
44. DDR: Double data rate
45. DIMM: Dual Inline Memory Module
46. DMA: Direct Memory Access
47. DOA: Dead on Arrival
48. DOS: Disk Operating System
49. DPI: Dots Per Inch
50. DRAM: Dynamic Random Access Memory
51. DVD: Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc
52. DVI: Digital Video Interface
53. EE: Extreme Edition OR Energy Efficient (Depending on context)
54. EG: Exempli Gratia
55. EGA: Extended Graphics Adapter (16 color)
56. EIDE: Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics
57. EIST: Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology
58. EVGA: Extended VGA
59. FAT: File Allocation Table
60. FDD: Floppy Disc Drive
61. FPS: Frames Per Second|First Person Shooter|Etc
62. FPU: Floating Point Unit
63. FSAA: Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing
64. FSB: Front Side Bus
65. FTL: For the Lose
66. FTW: For The Win
67. GDDR: Graphics Double Data Rate
68. GB: Gigabyte
69. GFX: Graphics/Graphics Card
70. GHz: one billion clock cycles per second
71. GPU: Graphics Processing unit AKA the "Core"
72. GUI: Graphical User Interface
73. HD: Hard Drive OR High Definition (Depending on the context)
74. HDD: Hard Disk Drive
75. HDR: High Dynamic-Range
76. HL2: Half Life 2
77. HSF: Heat Sink Fan
78. HT: Intels Hyper Threading
79. HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language
80. HTT: AMDs Hyper Transport Technology
81. HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol
82. IDE: Integrated Drive Electronics
83. IHS: Integrated Heat Spreader
84. I/O CONTROLLER: Input Output Controller
85. IMHO: In my honest/humble opinion
86. IMO: In my opinion
87. IOH: Input/Output Hub
88. IP: Internet Protocol
89. ISA: Industry Standard Architecture
90. ISP: Internet Service Provider
91. ITAT: Intel Thermal Analysis Tool
92. KB: Kilobyte
93. LAN: Local Area Network
94. LCD: Liquid Crystal Display
95. LED: Light Emitting Diode
96. LGA: Land Grid Array
97. LLC: Load Line Calibration
98. MB: Megabyte
99. MBR: Master Boot Record
100. MCH: Memory Controller Hub (a name for the NB)
101. MCP: Media Communications Processor (also called Southbridge)
102. MFLOPS: (Mega)Floating-point operations per second (1 million FLOPS)
103. MHz: MegaHertz
104. MICRON: Micrometer; one millonth of a meter.
105. MS: Microsoft
106. MIPS: Million Instructions Per Second
107. MOBO: Motherboard
108. MTBF: Mean Time Between Failures (PSU's)
109. MSAA: Multi-Sampling Anti-Aliasing
110. NB: North Bridge
111. NIB: New in Box|New In the original Box
112. NIC: Network Interface Card
113. NM: Nanometers
114. NVIDIA: NVIDIA, is a mixture of "n" a mathematical variable meaning "to the highest degree" and video,which comes from Latin videre, "to see" implying "the best visual experience.
115. n00b/nub/Newb/Newbie: New User or not so skilled person with very little experience or knowledge on the subject.
116. NTFS: New Technology File System
117. OC: OverClock
118. OCer: Overclocker
119. OCN: Overclock.net
120. OCP: Over current protection
121. OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer
122. OLED: Organic light emiting diode
123. OP: Original Poster, or Original Post depending on context.
124. OpenGL: Open Graphics Library
125. OS: Operating System (WINDOWS, LINUX, UNIX, DOS, OS2, AND OS X)
126. OTP: Over temperature protection
127. OVP: Over Voltage Protection
128. PATA: Parallel ATA
129. PCB: Printed Circuit Board / Process Control Block
130. PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect
131. PCI-E/PCX: PCI-Express come in 1x 4x 8x 16x
132. PCI-X: PCI v2.0+ 2.0 is 266mHz
133. PCI/AGP LOCK: Function of some motherboards that allows you to lock the Southbridge controllers
134. PCMCIA: Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
135. PDF: Portable Document Format
136. PITA: Pain In The Ass/Arse
137. POP3: Post Office Protocol version 3
138. PGA: Pin Grid Array
139. PIXEL RESPONSE: The time it takes for a LCD pixel to change from black to white (you want 16ms or lower for gaming)
140. PLL: Phase locked loop
141. POST: Power On Self Test
142. PPU: Physics Processing Unit
143. PEBKAC: Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.
144. PSU: Power Supply Unit
145. QAA: Quality Antialiasing
146. QFT: Quoted For Truth
147. QPI: QuickPath Interconnect
148. RAD: Radiator
149. RAID: redundant array of independent drives
150. RAM: Random Access Memory
151. RAMDAC: Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter
152. RAS: Row Access Strobe or Row Address Strobe
153. RBX: Type of water block from Danger Den
154. REFRESH RATE: number of times a CRT's electron beam sweeps across the screen during a full second
155. REP: REPutation
156. RGB: Red, Green, Blue
157. RGBHV: Red, Green, Blue, Horizontal sync, Vertical sync
158. RIMM: Rambus Inline Memory Module
159. .rar/rar: A popular file archive format similar to ZIP. Most often used on Apple/Mac systems.
160. RMA: Return Manufacturer Agreement
161. ROFL: Rolling on floor laughing
162. ROM: Read Only Memory
163. RPM: Revolutions Per Minute
164. RTS: Real Time Strategy (has other meanings but this is generally what they mean)
165. PWM: Pulse Width Modulation
166. S478 S939 SXXX: S= SOCKET XXX= NUMBER OF PINS
167. SAA: Supersampling Antialiasing
168. SATA: Serial ATA
169. SCP: Short circuit protection
170. SB: South Bridge or Sound Blaster (depending on context)
171. SCSI: Small Computer Systems Interface
172. SDR: Single Data Rate
173. SDSL: Synchronous Digital Service Line
174. SFF: Small Form Factor
175. SG: Seagate
176. SIMM: Single In-line Memory Module
177. SLI: Scalable Link Interface
178. S.M.A.R.T.: Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology
179. SMbus: System Management Bus
180. SMP: Symmetric Multi-Processors
181. SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
182. SPP: System Platform Processor (also called Northbridge)
183. SSAA: Super-Sampling Anti-Aliasing
184. SSD: Solid State Drive
185. SSE SSE2 SSE3: Streaming Single-instruction-multiple-data Extension
186. TB: Terabyte
187. TC: Thermal Compound or TurboCache (Depending on context)
188. TCP/IP: Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
189. TDP: Thermal Design Power
190. TD: Tigerdirect.com
191. TDX: Type of water block from Danger Den
192. TEC: ThermoElectric Cooling (PELTIER)
193. TF2: Team Fortress 2 OCN Server 8.9.16.94:27015
194. TFT: Thin Film Transistor
195. TIM: Thermal Interface Material
196. TP: Thermal Paste
197. TRUE: ThermalRight Ultra Extreme
198. TT: ThermalTake
199. TTT: To The Top (Used when bumping threads)
200. UPC: Universal Power Cord (used on power supplies)
201. UPS: Un-interruptible Power System
202. USB: Universal Serial Bus
203. UT: Unreal Tournament
204. UV: Ultraviolet
205. UVP: Under voltage protection
206. VC: Video Card
207. VCORE: Voltage of the CORE of a processor
208. VDIMM: Voltage of memory (DIMM)
209. VID: Voltage Identification
210. VGA: Video Graphics Array
211. VPU: Video Processing unit
212. VRM: Voltage regulator module
213. W3: Sometimes shorted from the WWW or World Wide Web
214. WAN: Wide Area Network
215. WB: Water Block ( used to cool a processor with liquid)
216. WC: Water Cooled (process of removing heat from a processor by means of moving water
217. WD: Western Digital
218. WDM Windows Device Manager
219. WI-FI: WIreless FIdelity.
220. WP: Water Pump
221. XE: eXtreme Edition [same as EE]
222. X-Fi: Xtreme Fidelity
223. YGPM: You've Got Private Message
224. ZIF: Zero Insertion Force
225. .zip|ZIP|ZP: Compression files that save disk space (PKZip is most popular)

tacticdesigns · Feb 23, 2012

Great list.

How about adding sensor formats? APS-C, 4/3, m4/3, etc.?

Maybe add Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual / Metered Manual?

dSLR, Mirrorless, EVIL, etc?

And changing "Macro" to "Macro / Micro" because Nikon calls their Macro lenses Micro?