Glossary

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• APS-C-Advanced Photo System type C- originally a photographic film format 25.1x16.7mm, now used to refer to digital sensors that are roughly the same size. Often referred to as "crop" sensor, because they are smaller than a "standard" 35mm sensor. However not all crop sensors are APS-C.See the Wikipedia's APS-C entry.
  

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• Crop Sensor - a crop sensor is normally defined as a sensor smaller than a standard 35mm frame size, i.e. smaller than the "standard" 135 35mm format of 24x36mm. Often when people say "crop" sensor they mean APS-C, however all sensors smaller than 135 format (e.g.MFT) are be said to be cropped.
  
• CSC- Compact Systems Camera - See Mirrorless
  

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  • DOF - depth of field - The distance between the nearest and furthest points of acceptable focus within an image. Everything within the DOF should be acceptably sharp. Objects before the nearest or after the furthest point of the DOF will not be acceptably sharp.
    

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  • EVIL-Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens- See Mirrorless

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• From the Hip- see Hip Shooting below.
  

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• HCB - Henry Cartier-Bresson - A very early SP. Acknowledged as a master and the inventor of modern photo journalism.
  
• Hip Shooting- shooting without using the viewfinder. Often done with the camera held at chest, belly or hip level. Hence hip shooting. Also a play on shooting from the hip - like the old western gunslingers apparently did when they drew their pistols quickdraw style. Therefore Hip Shooting can also imply a quick or impromptu shot. Some SPs practise shooting from the hip a lot and can be quite good at it. I.e. roughly predict the frame, keep the camera level and actually shoot the subject. Modern digital cameras with tilting or foldout screens allow for shooting from the hip with full creative control. There is some debate as to whether using such screens truly constitutes shooting from the hip. Hip shooting is often employed as a subterfuge to deceive a subject to believe they are not be photographed.
  

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• M43-Micro Four Thirds- see Micro Four Thirds
  
• MFT-Micro Four Thirds- see Micro Four Thirds
  
• Micro Four Thirds - Digital camera sensor format/size. Smaller than APS-C but larger than most compact camera sensors. 17.3x13mm or 22mm diagonal. See the Wikipedia Micro Four Thirds article
  
• MILC-Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera- See Mirrorless
  
• Mirrorless - a relatively new format/design of camera. The first model was probably the Epson RD-1 thought the RD-1 was released before the term mirrorless was coined. Probably the time the term mirrorless was coined was around the 2008/2009 when the Panasonic and Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras were released. Mirrorless cameras do not have a moving mirror like a DSLR hence the name mirrorless. The viewfinder is normally an electronic viewfinder or an optical rangefinder style window - though some mirrorless cameras have a hybrid viewfinder which combines both an optical window and an electronic viewfinder. Mirrorless cameras have interchangeable lenses. This sounds a lot like a compact digital camera or digicam, however mirrorless cameras nearly always (but not quite always) have larger sensors than digicams, mirrorless cameras have interchangeable lenses and mirrorless cameras tend to be higher performance - i.e. faster auto focus and less shutter lag(often nearing or equaling DSLR performance and some mirrorless exceeed DSLR performance in some parameters) when compared to digicams. So the defining characteristics of a mirrorless camera are:
  
  • DSLR like performance - quick AF, low shutter lag, relatively high frame rate
    
  • No mirror
    
  • Interchangeable lenses
    
  • Larger sensor compared to digicams
    
• MSC-Mirrorless Systems Camera- See Mirrorless
  

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• PJ - Photo Journalism - a from of documentary photography, allied to, possibly including SP.
  

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• Rangefinder- a type of manual focus camera that uses an optical incident rangefinder to focus the image. When you look through the viewfinder of a rangefinder you see a "bright patch" where the image will be split into two, if it is not in focus. You turn the focus ring back and forth until the split image halves mate to become one.
  The viewfinder for a rangefinder is a window that passes through the body of the camera. The light entering the viewfinder does not pass through the lens. Therefore what you see in the viewfinder is not exactly the same as what the lens/sensor/film see. Therefore your shot will differ slightly from what you see. This sounds like (and is) a disadvantage. But rangefinders have other advantages that some people value more highly than this disadvantage. The main advantage with a viewfindr is that the field of view you see is wider than what the lens see. There are two bright lines inside the viewfinder that roughly describe where the edge of the frame is (it varies from lens to lens). Because the viewfinder is wider than the lens, you can see subjects that are about to enter the frame before they do enter the frame. That is one major advantage for some people and styles of shooting. Another advantage is that unlike and SLR, the you can always see through the viewfnder. With an SLR the viewfinder is blacked out, due to the mirror moving as you press the shutter button. Because there is no mirror with a rangefinder your view is never blocked completely.
  
• Rangefinder style- some modern cameras are styled like a rangefinder and may even have a rangefinder like viewfinder (i.e. a window that passes through the camera body and does not show what the lens/sensor/film sees but they do not have an actual rangefinder mechanism for focussing. Usually they will have autofocus and perhaps manual focus in conjunction with an LCD screen. Some digital rangefinder style cameras have an electronic viewfinder that gets it's image from the sensor so does see what the sensor sees. These rangefinder style cameras really are only sykled as rangefinders.
  

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• Shutter - mechanical device that controls the duration of the entry of light into the camera.
  
• SP - Street Photography
  













• Street - Street Photography
  













• Street Photography - see the Wikipedia's definition
  













• Street 'tog' - an abbreviation for Street Photographer. Usage of this term should be avoided. See tool
  













• Subject- the person or thing you take a picture of.
  

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• Tool-1)a dick ; 2) device or impelment used to undertake a particular function - people who say street 'tog tend to be tools (sense 1). A camera is just a tool (sense 2)
  

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• u43-Micro Four Thirds-see Micro Four Thirds
  

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• Zone Focussing - focussing the lens a known distance. With Zone Focussing the photographer to focusses the camera once for a known distance. The photographer then tries to make sure the subject is roughly that distance away, allowing for DOF. Makes for quicker shots - assuming the subject is in the zone of focus. People advise that you use some kind of local standard distance, like the width of a footpath or half the distance between two light poles. The idea here of course is you can then use these commonly available local references to judge if you are the right distance away from the subject or not and to adjust if required. Sounds like a lot of work. They have auto focus now. Except on Leica rangefinders, the defacto trophy camera of new/wannabe and some very old skool Street Photographers. The old skool Leica users though tend to shoot film. digital rangefinders tend to be for people with too much money or a strong drive to conform with stereotypes.
  

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