Digital Cameras

Useful Digital Camera Terms
Megapixels - Tiny units of color that make up digital pictures. Pixels also measure digital resolution in digital cameras, contrary to popular belief you do not need a very high number of pixels for good photos, a higher pixel count is really only needed if you plan to print the photos and make enlargements. Most cameras offer a resolution of at least 5 megapixels, which is enough to make a sharp 11-by-14 print.
Resolution - Digital camera resolution describes the number of pixels used to create the image, which determines the sharpness of photos. Resolution ranges from low (640 x 480) to high (2592 x 1944 and up). High resolution makes for sharper pictures; however, high-resolution photos take up more memory than lower-res photos.
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.
Optical Zoom - The optical zoom feature is important to have on a digital camera, it utilizes the movement of the digital camera lens. Optical zoom ratings vary from 3PX to 20PX and the higher ratings give the best image quality. Optical zoom gives you all the benefits of the camera's maximum resolution, combined with the ability to focus in tight on faraway action. Optical zoom is more important than resolution because it means you won't have to magnify your subject and then use software to crop the image and discard some of the resolution as a result.
Digital Zoom - Digital zoom merely captures pixels and magnifies those and produces inferior photos, always go with Optical Zoom.
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 - The speed at which a digital camera's shutter exposes the image sensor to light. Faster shutter speeds are good for "freezing" fast-moving action; slow ones allow you to intentionally blur the movement of your subject to emphasize motion.
Face detection - Face detection is a recent technology commonly found in point-and-shoot cameras. It recognizes one or more human faces in your frame, and sets focus priority on the people in your shot.
JPEG - The predominant format used for image compression in digital cameras
Memory Card - Digital Camera memory card is a data storage device that is used to store pictures as they are taken.
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. The higher the count the more storage capability.
Viewfinder - The optical "window" on a digital camera to look through to compose the scene.
White balance - White balance is the electronic adjustment of light levels to remove unrealistic color tones or hues, so that objects that appear white in person are rendered white in your photos. This process helps recorded images to retain their true colors. All digital cameras offer automatic white balance, and most feature additional preset levels or even custom manual settings.