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Digital Photography Glossary

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Image Noise: Image noise creates specks of the wrong color in a digital image. Image noise usually occurs in low-light conditions when a camera's light sensor registers an incorrect value, for instance recording yellow when it should record black. This error causes small dots to appear in the image. Higher quality cameras should have very little noise, even at high ISO settings.

ISO: ISO is a measurement of a digital camera's imaging sensor's sensitivity. Digital cameras with high ISO capability are better able to take low-light images and pictures of fast moving objects.

JPEG: An acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group, a JPEG is the most commonly used type of digital image format. By eliminating very subtle color distinctions that the human eye usually cannot detect, JPEG images are compressed so that they can save faster and use less space. Because JPEG format actually alters an image, it's compression is said to be "lossy," meaning that a certain amount of data is lost every time a JPEG is edited, saved, and compressed again.

Macro Mode: Macro mode allows a digital camera to take close-up pictures of small objects like flowers, insects, coins, etc. Macro capabilities vary by camera- check a camera's reviews to see how its macro mode performs.

Megabyte: A megabyte (MB) is a unit of data used to describe the size of digital images and the capacity of a digital memory card. Memory cards are available in sizes ranging from 8MB to 2 Gigabytes (a Gigabyte is the equivalent of 1,024MB).

Megapixel: A measure of resolution that reflects the ability of a digital camera to record detail. The more megapixels a camera has, the more detail its images can contain and the more they can be enlarged without losing clarity. More megapixels aren't always necessary, however.

Memory Stick: Memory Stick is a memory format used primarily by Sony digital cameras. Memory Sticks are available in sizes up to 1 Gigabyte.

Movie Mode: Movie mode lets digital cameras shoot video clips. Some cameras offer sound, while others can only take silent videos. The maximum length of a movie is determined by a camera's internal limits and/or the size of the memory card.