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It helps when learning to use your new digital camera to also know what some of the more common terms mean, especially when shopping for digital cameras.

Pixels - Tiny units of color that make up digital pictures. Pixels also measure digital resolution in digital cameras, the more pixels the better clarity of the pictures, especially if you plan to print them and make enlargements. One million pixels adds up to one mega-pixel.

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Automatic Mode - A setting that sets the focus, exposure and white-balance automatically. Below you will find many of these common terms defined.

Burst Mode or Continuous Capture Mode - a series of pictures taken one after another at quickly timed intervals with one press of the shutter button.

Image Sensor - Like the engine of a car, the image sensor in a digital camera acts as the primary tool to capture an image in digital photography.The two most commonly found technologies used to capture digital images in today''s cameras are CCD(charge coupled device) and CMOS(complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensors. Although both types have their unique strengths and weaknesses, neither one is inherently superior to the other. You can expect high-quality digital photographs from cameras using either technology.

Shutter Speed - Measured in rotations per second, the number specifies the rotating speed of the camera shutter, or in the case of digital video cameras, how quickly the CCD recognizes a new sample of light.

Compression - The process of compacting digital data, images and text by deleting selected information.

Digital Zoom - Allows the user to zoom in on a subject beyond the range provided by the optical zoom lens. Digital Zoom crops the center of the digital picture and re-sizes the new cropped picture to the size of the selected resolution. Digital zoom merely captures pixels and magnifies those and produces inferior photos, always go with Optical Zoom.

Optical Zoom - Utilizes the movement of the digital camera lens. The focal length is changed and the image that passes through the lens is captured with optical zoom. Optical zoom gives you all the benefits of the camera''s maximum resolution, combined Digital Camera Terminology with the ability to focus in tight on faraway action.

JPEG - The predominant format used for image compression in digital cameras.

Lag Time - The pause between the time the shutter button is pressed and when the digital camera actually captures the image.

LCD (Liquid-Crystal Display) - is a small screen on a digital camera for viewing images in real time.

Lens -Digital Camera lens is a circular and transparent glass or plastic piece on the front of the digital camera that has the function of collecting light and focusing it on the sensor to capture the image.

Memory Card (flash memory card) -Digital Camera memory card is a solid-state electronic data storage device that is used to store pictures as they are taken. This removable storage device replaces old school film in digital camera technology and is much smaller. Also called a digital camera storage card.

Megabyte - (MB) Measures 1024 Kilobytes, and refers to the amount of information in a file, or how much information can be contained on a Memory Card.

RGB - Refers to Red, Green, Blue colors used on computers to create all other colors.

Viewfinder - The optical "window" on a digital camera to look through to compose the scene.

White Balance - White balancing adjusts the digital camera to compensate for the type of light (daylight, fluorescent, incandescent, etc.,) or lighting conditions in the scene so it will look normal to the human eye.