Photography Acronyms

© dzignous

DOF, AFS, ETTL, APS-C/H, FX/DX etc etc... Wondering what the hell are those? Photography got lots in common with Singapore too (also acronyms-crazy, think PAP, ERP, HDB, PUB, CBD, COE...)

With some help from my fave Google, a list (not comprehensive) below to help you understand a tiny bit more...

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A-DEP: Automatic depth of field
AdobeRGB: Color space with a wider color gamut than sRGB
(Suitable for print)
AE: Automatic exposure


AEB: Automatic exposure bracketing 

AEL: Auto-exposure lock


AF: Auto focus 

AF-I: Nikon's lenses with the focusing motor built into the lens barrel itself


AF-S: Nikon's silent-wave focusing motors, similar to Canon's USM motors


AI: Aperture indexing – Nikon's lenses which communicate lens aperture to camera body via mechanical coupling


AI-S: Nikon's AI lenses which also transmit linear aperture information
APS-C: Advance-Photo-System, Type-C, either 1.5x crop sensor in Nikon/Sony/Pentax or 1.6x in Canon
APS-H: 1.3x crop sensor used in Canon 1D series (with high fps shooting)


ASA: American Standards Association - now known as ISO  (See ISO)


ATX: Advanced Technology-Extra (lens technology by Tokina


Av: Aperture Priority exposure mode  (same as A mode)

AWB: Automatic white balance 

B: Bulb mode – allows for the shutter to be open as long as the shutter button is pressed


BMP: Bitmap – a type of image format


CA: Chromatic aberration - Color fringing seen at high contrast areas


CCD: Charged coupled device (Type of sensor usually found in DSLR and medium format cameras)


CF: Compact Flash - Common type of memory card physically larger than SD


CMOS: Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor  (Type of digital sensor typically used in Canon/Nikon hi-end cameras)


CMYK: Cyan-magenta-yellow-black (printing)

CPL: Circular polarizer


CRW: Canon Raw format


CR2: Canon Raw format



DF: Sigma's dual focus system

DG: Sigma lenses with special coatings to help minimize reflections from digital sensors


Di: Tamron lenses with optics designed to combat the increased reflectivity of digital sensors


Di-II: Tamron's lenses for small-sensor digital cameras



DNG: Digital Negative (Adobe's open Raw format)



DOF: Depth of Field - The range of sharp focus in a picture


DPI: Dots per square inch - A measure of printing resolution



DSLR: Digital Single Lens Reflex camera

DX: Lens designed for use in cropped sensor cameras



ED: Extra-low Dispersion glass elements (helps correcting chromatic aberrations)


EF: Electronic Focusing ( Canon's autofocus lens mount)


EF-s: Electronic Focus Short Backfocus (Canon l.6x crop DSLR lenses)


EOS: Canon's electronic optical system


E-TTL: Canon's evaluative through-the-lens flash metering


E-TTL II: Canon's second generation through-the-lens flash metering technology


EV: Exposure value
EX: Excellence (Sigma's high-end lenses
) 

EXIF: Exchangeable image file format 

F-stop: Aperture


FD: Canon's older lens mount system


FE: Fisheye lens
FEB: Flash exposure bracketing


FEC: Flash exposure compensation


FEL: Flash exposure lock


FF/FX: Full frame - 24mm x 36mm DSLR sensor size,  the size of 35mm film



F-mount: Nikon's lens mount

FPS: Frames per second - how many pictures per second the camera can capture

G: Nikon's electronically controlled lenses which lack aperture rings on the lens barrel


GB: Gigabyte – 1,000 Megabytes



GND: Graduated neutral density filter
GPS: Global positioning system 

HDR: High dynamic range


HSM: Sigma's quiet, fast focusing motor (similar to Canon's USM/Nikon's AFS)

ICC: International Color Consortium - Color reproduction abilities of devices, often used to calibrate monitors and printers


IR: Infrared - Light below the visible spectrum when photographed


IF: Internal focusing lenses


IS: Canon's Image Stabilization lenses


ISO: International Standards Organization

JPEG/JPG: Joint Photographic Experts Group - Most commonly used image format

K: Kelvin - Scale used to measure color temperature


K-mount: Pentax lens mount

LCD: Liquid crystal display 


LED: Light emitting diode


Li-ion: Lithium ion - Type of rechargeable battery with no memory effect, slow loss of charge when not in use

M: Manual exposure - the user manually selects both the aperture and shutter speed 



MF: Medium format


MF: Manual focus

MUP: Mirror lock-up - A technique to flip up the SLR mirror before exposure and minimize vibrations due to mirror slap


MP: Megapixel
MTF: Modulation transfer function - Measuring lens sharpness

ND: Neutral density filter - Dark filter which blocks light and allows for slower shutter speeds


NEF: Nikon Electronic File - Nikon's proprietary Raw format


OIS: Sigma's Optical Image Stabilization lenses

P: Program mode - Automatic exposure mode where the camera selects both the aperture and shutter speed


P&S: Point & Shoot camera 

PC: Perspective control - Lenses which have the ability to tilt, shift, rise


PNG: Portable network graphics - A non-proprietary lossless image format

PPI: Pixels per inch


ProPhoto RGB: Large color space featuring a color gamut larger than that of sRGB and AdobeRGB


PS: Adobe Photoshop


PSD: Photoshop Document - Adobe Photoshop's native file format

RAW: Unprocessed data, allowing for large amounts of control and high quality images

RGB: Red-green-blue - Three primary colors in additive color theory

SD: Secure Digital - Memory card physically smaller than compact flash


SDHC: Secure Digital High Capacity - A new standard allowing SD cards > 2 GB


SLR: Single lens reflex (Cameras with mirror-box, TTL metering)


TIFF/TIF: Tagged image file format - Uncompressed image file format (bigger file size than RAW)


TLR: Twin-lens reflex - A type of camera in which the viewfinder lens and the taking lens are separate optical systems
TTL: Through the lens - Metering system which works through the lens for ambient or flash

Tv: Shutter priority exposure mode

UD: Ultra-low dispersion glass - used to correct chromatic aberration


USM: UltraSonic Motor - Canon's fast and quiet focusing motor 
UV Filter: Ultraviolet filter
UWA: Ultra-wide angle - Usually a lens with an angle of view greater than 90°

VR: Nikon's Vibration Reduction lenses

WA: Wide-angle lens - Focal length shorter than a 50mm lens with wider view


WB: White balance


X-sync: Flash sync speed indicating the fastest shutter speed that can be used with a flash