Beginner Common Abreviations

Why dont we add a few abreviations that include lenses?
FE - Sony E mount Full Frame lenses
EF - Canon Full Frame lenses
EF-S - Canon Crop lenses
 
MTF - Modulation Transfer Function. A method for expressing image quality by measuring contrast as a function of detail.
 
EOTF Electro-optical transfer function
OETF Opto-electrical transfer function

The relationships between light and signal level.
 
ITU-R BT.709 (Rec709) standard describing colour space and OETF for HD video

ITU-R BT.2020 standard describing colour space and OETF for phase 1 Ultra HD video
 



In neither is
DR for dynamic range listed and
TR for tonal range
let alone DRL!

Many I understand but never seen used before. It shows
me that it depends very much on the people one works
and communicates with!

How old are these lists?
 
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The TP thread was started 6 years ago (almost to the day!) and was last updated about a month ago.
 
It's a sticky thread in the beginners section.
 
Too many three letter acronyms. Why can't people just say what they mean?

I see all this crap in beginner threads too... people firing acronyms at them. We're not in some stupid management meeting... just speak English.
 
Too many three letter acronyms. Why can't people just say what they mean?

I see all this crap in beginner threads too... people firing acronyms at them. We're not in some stupid management meeting... just speak English.
The Americans have to abbreviate everything it's ridiculous.
 
Okay - argument re: TLA usage, and the the merits or otherwise of turning pro before you're capable of using a camera is now here

Please don't derail this thread with any more arguments.

cheers.
 
GAS - gear acquisition syndrome ;-)
 
Fubar. Commonly used about a piece of equipment that is no longer functional owing to age or damage. "F'd up beyond all recognition."
 
if you know of anymore let me know and i can edit this list

Haven't seen this thread before but seeing that a few people have commented about its helpfulness, I've taken the liberty of updating it. Not sure if you're still about Chris, but if you want to copy/paste this into your OP it'll save digging through the suggestions... Given it a bit of a clean up and removed sentences mentioning links that aren't embedded as well as adding some of the more common ones suggested in the follow up posts. People can Google the words if they want more info.

A
A-DEP - Automatic Depth of Field

AE - Automatic Exposure
AE L - Automatic exposure lock

AEB - Auto-Exposure Bracketing

AF - Automatic Focus.
AF L - Automatic focus lock

AP (Nikon) - Aperture priority
AV (Canon) - Aperture priority

APS-C - Advanced Photo System type-C

AS - Antishake.

ASA - Definition of film speed.


B
BBF - Back button focus

BIF - Bird in flight

BMP - Also called Windows bitmap

Bulb - A shutter speed that lasts as long as you hold the shutter open

BSI - Back side illumination

BTL - Behind the Lens

B&W - Black and White


C
CCD - Charged Coupled Device: Image sensor technology.

CF - Compact Flash

CHDK - Canon Hackers Development Kit.

CIPA - Camera & Imaging Products Association

CLA - Cleaning, lubrication and adjustment.

CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

CMS - Colour Management System

CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black

CSC - Compact system camera

CWB - Custom White Balance.


D
DI - Digital Imaging

DNG - Digital Negative (image format)

DOF - Depth of Field.

DP - Digital Photography

DPI - Dots per Inch.

DPOF -Digital Print Order Format

DR - Dynamic Range

D-SLR or DSLR - Digital Single Lens Reflex

DZ - Digital Zoom.


E
EC - Exposure Compensation

ETTR - Expose to the right

ETTL - Evaluative Through The Lens
ETTL - Expose to the left

EV - Exposure Value

EVF - Electronic Viewfinder

EXIF - Exchangeable Image File Format.


F
FEB - Flash Exposure Bracketing

FEC - Flash Exposure Compensation

FEL - Flash Exposure Lock

FF - Full Frame

FFS - When things go wrong

FOV - Field Of View

FPS - Frames per Second

FX - Full frame


G
GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome

GB - Gigabyte

GIF - Graphics Interchange Format.

Grad - Graduated filter


H
HDR - High Dynamic Range

HSS - High Speed Sync


I
IBIS - In Body Image Stabilisation

IF - Internal Focusing

ILC - Interchangeable lens camera

IR - Infrared

IS -Image Stabilisation

ISO - International Organisation for Standardisation. ISO isn't a TLA, it's derived from the greek word isos meaning "equal"

IQ - Image Quality


J
JPEG or JPG -Joint Photographic Experts Group.


K
KB - Kilobyte - 1024 of these go into 1mb


L
LCD - Liquid Crystal Display

LED - Light Emitting Diode

LF - Large format

LR - (Adobe) Lightroom

LTE - Long Time Exposure


M
M - Manual

MB - Megabyte

MF - Manual focus
MF - Medium format

MFT - Micro four thirds

MLU - Mirror Lock-up

MMC - MultiMedia Card.

MP - Megapixels.

MPEG - Moving Picture Experts Group

MS - Memory Stick.


N
ND Filters - Neutral Density Filters (see also Graduated ND Filters)

NFC - Near Field Communication

NR - Noise Reduction

NS@W - Not Safe @ Work (Also NSFW = Not Safe For Work (to be seen in thread titles or in front of websites))


O
OCF - Off Camera Flash

OCR - Optical Character Recognition.

OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer

OLED - Organic light emitting diode

OOC - Out of Camera

OOF - Out of Focus

OP - Original Poster (Forums - the person who started the thread)

OTF - Off the Film

OVF - Optical Viewfinder

OZ - Optical Zoom.


P
P - Programmed auto-exposure

PASM - The dial with all the modes. Can be referred to as "the PASM dial"

PIC - Picture

PICS or PIX - Pictures

PJ - Photojournalism or Photojournalist

PNG - Portable Network Graphics.

PP -Post Processing

PPA - Professional Photographers of America

PPI - Pixels per Inch.

PQ - Picture Quality

PS - (Adobe) Photoshop

PSE - Photoshop Elements

PSP - Paintshop Pro.


Q


R
RF - Rangefinder

RTM - Read the manual (Also RTFM read the flippin' manual)


S
SD - Secure Digital: a memory card format for your digital camera.

SDHC- Secure Digital High Capacity.

SLR - Single Lens Reflex: the same thing as a D-SLR, only referring to film cameras.

SOOC - Straight Out of Camera

SP - Shutter Priority.

sRGB = Standard RGB Colour Space

SS - Shutter Speed.

SWMBO - She Who Must Be Obeyed

SWM - Silent Wave Motor, Low Noise fast focus, lens motor.


T
Tb - Terabyte - 1024 gb

TC - Teleconverter

TFP - Time For Prints

TFCD - Time For CD

TIFF or TIF - Tagged Image File Format.

Tog - Photographer.

TP - Talk Photography

TTL - Through-the-lens

TV - Time Value


U
USB - Universal Serial Bus

USM - Unsharp Mask
USM - Ultrasonic Motor

UWA - Ultra Wide Angle


V
VR - Vibration Reduction.


W
WA - Wide Angle

WB - White Balance.

WLF - Waist level finder

WS - Watt-Second

X


Y


Z
 
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One that I have seen on a few threads on here recently is
ML - Which I think is an abbreviation for MirrorLess

I'm not usually pedantic about this sort of thing but for some reason this one really makes me want to punch anyone who uses it. Please someone invent something better for a high-end camera that doesn’t have a mirror (my phone camera is “ML”) before this one sticks
 
Evaluative Through The Lens. It's Canon's flash metering mode.

ETTL can also mean expose to the left, or "expose for the shadows". The modern day equivalent for digital is ETTR - expose to the right "for the highlights".

Re: Evaluative

I use three cameras ...

The Canon uses the Evaluative word for 'normal' metering, the Nikon calls it Matrix, the Panasonic doesn't seem to have a name for it, just: "measure brightness on the whole screen automatically".
 
One that I have seen on a few threads on here recently is
ML - Which I think is an abbreviation for MirrorLess

I'm not usually pedantic about this sort of thing but for some reason this one really makes me want to punch anyone who uses it. Please someone invent something better for a high-end camera that doesn’t have a mirror (my phone camera is “ML”) before this one sticks
ML is also used to mean Mirror Lens and Machine Learning.
 
APS-C

Advanced Photo System type-C
The C stands for Classic AKA the good old 6x4. You also have APS-H and APS-P for "HDTV" and Panoramic. There used to be a mode switch on good old APS cameras that switched between the modes. Classic was un-cropped 3:2, H was 16:9 and P was 3:1. Canon's old 1D series which claimed to be APS-H sensor size didn't follow the old APS aspect ratios.
 
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They probably should be included .

KB is kilobytes = 1/1024 th of a MB

TB is terabytes = 1024 x GB
 
Some useful ones...

Canon's EOS - Electro-Optical System...
IS - image stabilisation
USM - ultrasonic motor

Nikon:
SWM - silent wave motor
G - Gelded ie no aperture ring on lenses
DX - APS-c format camera/lens
FX - 35mm format camera/lens
VR - vibration reduction.


Pentax
SDM - Supersonic drive motor
AW - all-weather
WR - weather resistant
SR - shake reduction
SMC- super multi coated
HD - Hi Definition (replaced SMC)
PLM - pulse motor
PP - post-production
 
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