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Analog Gain - Analog gain offers higher sensitivity and less noise than using only digital gain. The result: higher refresh rates, higher sensitivity and less noise.
Artifacts - An artifact refers to any visible defect. Image compression may introduce artifacts into a digital image.
Binning - Pixel binning is when adjacent pixels are added together to form a superpixel. This is happens through software control. Pixel binning increases the sensitivity of the chip. The signal to noise ratio will increase because the effects of individual photons or electrons will be reduced.
CCD - Charge Coupled Device: When an image is taken, the CCD is struck by light coming through the camera's lens. Each of the thousands or millions of tiny pixels that make up the CCD convert this light into electrons. The number of electrons, usually described as the pixel's accumulated charge, is measured, then converted to a digital value. This last step occurs outside the CCD, in a camera component called an analog-to-digital converter.
CMOS - Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor: One of the two main types of image sensors used in digital cameras. Its basic function is the same as that of a CCD. CMOS sensors are currently found in only a handful of digital cameras.
Color Calibration - This is the process of matching the color of two or more devices through software and/or hardware.
Color Co-Site Sampling - The ProgRes® C14plus cameras utilize color-co-site sampling to gather more relevant information from the specimen being observed. This extra information is used to examine the finest structures and measures the full true color information of the specimen, thus increasing spatial resolution.
DPI - Dots Per Inch: A measurement of the resolution of a digital photo or digital device, including digital cameras and printers. The higher the number, the greater the resolution.
Dynamic Range - Dynamic range in photography describes the ratio between the maximum and minimum measurable light intensities (white and black, respectively).
Grayscale - A photo made up of varying tones of black and white. Grayscale is synonymous with black and white.
Hermetically Sealed - Is a seal which, for practical purposes, is considered airtight in order to keep out harmful elements and help with the reliabillity of an instrument.
IEEE1394 Firewire - Interface is a serial bus interface standard for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer, frequently used by personal computers, as well as in digital audio, digital video, automotive, and aeronautics applications.
Image Refresh Rate - The refresh rate is the number of times a display's image is repainted or refreshed per second. The refresh rate is expressed in hertz so a refresh rate of 75 means the image is refreshed 75 times in a second.
Incident Illumination - light directed down on an object.
Interpolation - Is a method of numerical mathematics. Each pixel is only able to detect one color - red, green or blue. A camera that utilizes interpolation would capture an image and record one color for each pixel. If a pixel is missing, a math formula is calculated (or interpolated) to determine that pixel's color based on the values of the neighboring pixels.
IR Bandpass Filter - A filtering device that permits only those components in the frequency domain whose frequencies lie between two critical values to pass through with little attenuation, all other components being attenuated. See also band-stop filter, low-pass filter, high-pass filter.
Jpeg - A standard for compressing image data developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, hence the name JPEG. Strictly speaking, JPEG is not a file format, it's a compression method that is used within a file format, such as the EXIF-JPEG format common to digital cameras. It is referred to as a lossy format, which means some quality is lost in achieving JPEG's high compression rates. Usually, if a high-quality, low-compression JPEG setting is chosen on a digital camera, the loss of quality is not detectable to the eye.
Megapixels - Equal to one million pixels.
Microphotography - A very small photograph requiring enlargement to bring out the details.
Moire - An undesirable pattern that appears when a graphic image is displayed or printed with an inappropriate resolution. Moiré patterns are difficult to predict because they result from a complex combination of parameters: the size of the image, resolution of the image, resolution of the output device, halftone screen angle, etc.ines created by
Noise - An unwanted grain pattern in an image often caused by slow shutter speeds and high ISO settings.
Photomicrography - Photography of objects under a microscope. Such opaque objects as metal and stone may be ground smooth, etched chemically to show their structure, and photographed by reflected light with a metallurgical microscope.
Pixelation - The appearance of recognizable square pixels in an image. Pixelation usually occurs when a bitmap image has been enlarged beyond optimal range for its given number of pixels.
Pixel - Picture Element: digital photographs are comprised of thousands or millions of them; they are the building blocks of a digital photo.
Peltier Cooling - The production or absorption of heat at the junction of two metals on the passage of a current. Heat generated by the passage of the current in one direction will be absorbed if the current is reversed. By cooling the sensor in a camera, the resulting image contains far less noise.
Print Resolution - Adequate resolution for printing. 300dpi or ppi (pixels per inch).
Resolution - Refers to the total number and density of pixels available in a bitmap image.
Saturation - How rich the colors are in a photo. The intensity of a color with respect to its brightness or value. Given a level of brightness, saturation measures the amount of gray in a color. A color that lacks gray impurities will seem more intense and vivid. Saturation is closely related to chroma.
Screen Resolution - The maximum resolution of a computer monitor.
Tiff - Tagged image file format, one of the most widely supported file formats for storing bit-mapped images on personal computers.
Transmitted Illumination - Light passing through an object directed from below.
USB - Universal Serial Bus: a protocol for transferring data to and from digital devices. Many digital cameras and memory card readers connect to the USB port on a computer. USB card readers are typically faster than cameras or readers that connect to the serial port, but slower than those that connect via FireWire.
White Balance - Is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "color temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light.
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