Cameras Archives - Page 2 of 6

Film Plane Indicator

What is a Film Plane Indicator? The Film Plane Indicator is a small symbol on your camera that looks like a circle with a line drawn through it. If you were to cut your camera in half, exactly in line with the line through the circle, you would see that it cuts right through at the front of your camera’s sensor. Obviously the naming is a leftover from the days of film, and sometimes you’ll hear it called the Sensor Plane Indicator these days, or the Focal Plane Indicator. Why do you need to know where the front of your …

Focal Plane Indicator

See Film Plane Indicator

Frames Per Second

What Does Frames Per Second Mean? Often abbreviated to just FPS, frames per second refers to the speed at which a camera can capture photos. At the time of writing this definition, Canon’s top-of-the-line pro bodies are capable of capturing up to 14 photos in a single second (14 fps). Technology is evolving rapidly though, and the chances are pretty good that by the time you read this glossary term, things will have reached an even higher level. Lower end cameras like consumer point and shoots, tend to be much slower at around the 2-3 fps level. Mid-range DSLRs shoot …

GUI

What is a GUI On a Camera? GUI stands for Graphical User Interface – pronounced GOO-ey. When relating to cameras, the GUI is the on-screen menu system. Essentially it’s the graphical way of showing the camera settings. Menus, tabs, sub-menus etc. It could also mean the way the camera settings are displayed on the screen during live view shooting. If someone said “Wow, the GUI on Sony cameras is a mess” they mean the user interface (menus) are hard to understand.

Handgrip

What is a Handgrip on a Camera? The handgrip is a protrusion on the right-hand side of a camera that is ergonomically shaped to be comfortable when held in the hand. This is almost always the primary contact point between the photographer and their camera, so it is sized to make it large enough to grip and hold the weight of the camera. As such, the size of a camera’s handgrip is highly dependant on the weight of the camera. Larger cameras tend to have larger handgrips to make them easier to hold. Small point and shoot cameras barely have …

Image Stabilization

What Does Image Stabilization Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography ‘image stabilization’ refers to a technique used within camera hardware to reduce the effects of camera shake. There are two main types of image stabilization, lens based and camera based. Lens based image stabilization uses floating lens elements which move independently of the lens barrel to reduce the effects shake. Camera based image stabilization allows the image sensor to move independently to the camera body to mimimize unwanted sensor movement. Image stabilization is extremely helpful in any situations which require longer exposure times, for example when hand …

Lag Time

What Is Lag Time? Lag time in photography is more often referred to as shutter lag. For a detailed description of what shutter lag is, and why it’s important, please view the shutter lag glossary entry. Additional Reading What Is Shutter Lag? What Is Burst Rate? What Is Burst Mode?

Large Format

What Is a Large Format Camera When Talking About Photography? When talking about cameras and photography the term ‘large format’ refers to a camera which records images in a format larger than 4 x 5 inches. The main advantage of large format cameras is their incredible image resolution. A 4 X 5 inch image has roughly 16 times the image area of that produced by a 35mm camera and therefore 16 times the total image resolution. 4 x 5 inches is the most common large format but cameras have been produced which capture images anywhere up to 20 x 24 …

Live View

What Is Live View and How Is It Used When Taking Photographs? When talking about digital cameras the term ‘live view’ refers to a mode which allows a photographer to view the photographic sensor output in almost realtime on the camera’s LCD screen. In live view mode the photographer sees what the lens is seeing, including the effects of any changes in exposure settings. In DSLR’s live view requires the camera’s mirror to be lifted, this can limit autofocus functionality in cameras with dedicated phase detection autofocus sensors. This is overcome to some extent in cameras that use dual pixel …

Low Pass Filter

What Is a Low Pass Filter and How Is It Used in Photography? A low pass filter, also known as an ‘anti-aliasing’ filter or a ‘blur filter’ is a filter used by camera manufacturers to combat the effects of moiré in photographs. Moiré is caused when a a scene contains closely spaced repeating patterns, camera manufacturers combat this phenomenon by limiting the amount of light that is allowed into the camera, thus reducing the detail recorded in the resulting photograph. A low pass filter allows low frequencies of light to enter the camera, whilst limiting the amount of high frequency light …