Buffer (buffer memory)- You will seldom see a
specification for this, its a behind the scenes feature
that affects how long you will have to wait for
shooting one and then another or more shots.
Digicams have a lag time between shots. What's
happening is that a picture is shot, then sent to the
camera processor and written to the memory card.
Those actions can take time, and the cam can only
write one picture to a card at a time. So during that
time if you take another shot its stored in buffer ram
and waits its turn to be written. The more
sophisticated cameras (Nikon D1x, Kodak DCS 760)
have larger buffers and can shoot as much as 9
pictures while the card is busy being written. Spec.
Sheets will sometimes refer to this as „time between
shots.

Color management: A system used to achieve
consistent color between scanner, monitor, and
printer.

Driver- Software that enables a device to be used on
a computer.

DPI- Dots per Inch. Photoquality for printing is
regarded at 300 DPI. Screen quality is 72 dpi (Mac)
and 96 (Windows).

Dynamic range (D-Max) is the ratio between the brightest
and darkest recordable parts of an image or scene.
A scene that ranges from bright sunlight to deep
shadows is said to have a high dynamic range, while
indoor scenes with less contrast will have a low
dynamic range. Note that depending on the scene
contrast, it may or may not be possible to capture the
entire range with a digital camera. In recording
scenes with very high dynamic range, digital cameras
will make compromises that allow the capture of only
the part of the scene that is most important. This
compromise is needed because no camera or output
device of any kind (including the human eye) can
reproduce the nearly infinite dynamic range that
exists in real life.

DPOF-(Digital Print Order Format) is a system
which allows digital cameras to define what captured
images are to be printed on compatible print devices.
This is usually implemented through a menu option
of the digital camera's playback mode, it allows for
the tagging of images for printing along with other
details such as number of copies.

Dye Sub- Dye sublimation is a printer type that
produces a continuous-tone result by heating Cyan,
Magenta and yellow dyes until they turn into a gas.
This gas is infused onto the print surface, producing a
glossy tone that resembles traditional type c
photographic prints. (Olympus printers use this)

Image editor- The program you use to change
(resize, manipulate) your digital pictures. The most
prevalent and common, is Adobe Photoshop.

ICC profile: A standard file format used to describe
the color space of a monitor, scanner and printer.

Inkjet- Printer type that sprays CMYK inks or
pigments onto the paper. (Epson uses this method)

Twain- Software "path" that a digital files takes
into the computer via an image editor. Sometimes
referred to as a „Twain acquire module‰.

Optical zoom- focal length produced by the lens system and is
the magnification difference between minimum and
maximum focal lengths.

Digital zoom- is simply the cropping of a center part
of the captured image. Imagine seeing the whole
scene and then progressively shrinking a box into the
center of the image, if you were to crop that box out
of the image you would in effect have a "digital
zoom". Depending on how much quality you are
expecting, digital zoom can be seen as a useful
addition to a limited zoom capability.
How to understand focal length- you will see zooms with a
group of numbers i.e.: 28-105, 38-76 and sometimes after that
group 3x, or 2x. This is reference to 35mm cam talk. Its been
common for over a 75 years now, so digi cams refer to it as
the defacto gauge to compare. 50mm would be standard, and
that's the perspective you see. Any number below that would
be wide angle, and anything above 50 would be considered
telephoto.

Viewfinder Type- This refers to the way a
photographer sees what the cam is going to make into
a picture. Range Finder is a small hole that goes
threw the camera and aligns itself next to the lens.
SLR is a view that is TTL or through the lens. What
the chip is going to record, you are seeing, it&Mac226;s very
accurate. All point and shoot type digital cameras
allow you turn on the LCD and view exactly what
you are going to record.

Burst Mode- This is a continuous firing of up to a
certain amount of pictures in succession. In effect it
will fill the buffer as fast as the camera can shoot.
Good for sports.

Lossy compression- Any kind of compression that
results in a lower-quality image when compared with
the original.

Lossless compression- Any kind of compression that
delivers identical image when reopened.

Gamut- The range of colors that are reproducible on
a specific device, such as your monitor, printer, or
scanner)

Histogram- Shows the photographer the accuracy
and "spread" of the exposure over the cameras
grayscale range (dynamic range). The histogram
itself is a graph of brightness along the horizontal
axis (black to white) and the number of pixels at each
brightness level on the vertical axis. Most digital
SLR's and some newer advanced digital cameras
feature a histogram review mode.

White Balance- is a name given to a system of color
correction to deal with differing lighting conditions.
Normally our eyes compensate for different lighting
conditions, but when taking a still with a digital
camera the camera has to find the "white point" (the
assumption that a white object must appear white) to
correct other colors cast by the same light.
Most digital cameras feature automatic white balance, this
means that the camera looks at the overall color of the image
and calculates the best-fit white balance, however these
systems are often fooled (especially if taking a photograph
dominated by one color, say green). Most digicams also allow
you to override the automatic white balance by choosing a
white balance manually, typically sunlight, cloudy,
fluorescent, incandescent etc.