An A-to-almost-Z for those who can't tell a pixel from an f-stop. Impress the sales folk with your fluency in camera talk
Aperture: The size of the opening of a lens, often referred to as an 'f-stop', as in f/11 or f/8. The larger the f-number, the smaller the aperture and amount of light entering the camera lens. You can find the actual aperture by dividing the focal length of the camera by the f-number. A 110mm camera with an f-stop of 5.6 gives an aperture of about 19.6mm.
Buffer: Memory that the camera has to store digital images before they are written to the memory card. This is important if you are looking to snap a series of action images.
CCD: A charge coupled device is one of the two main types of image sensors used in digital cameras. In a CCD, every pixel's charge is transferred through a limited number of output nodes to be converted to voltage, buffered and sent off-chip as an analogue signal. CCDs are often used where image quality is crucial.
CMOS: A complementary metal-oxide semiconductor is the second of the two main types of image sensors used in digital cameras. In a CMOS imager, each pixel has its own charge-to-voltage conversion, and the sensor often includes digitisation circuits, so that the chip outputs digital bits. These other functions reduce the area available for light capture, and with each pixel doing its own conversion, uniformity drops. However, the chip requires less off-chip circuitry for basic operation. CMOS imagers are used where space is limited and image quality is not paramount.
EXIF: Exchangeable image file format is used in most digital cameras. When a typical camera is set to record a jpeg, it is actually recording an EXIF file that uses jpeg compression to compress the photo data within the file.
F-number (or F-stop): The ratio of the focal length of a lens or lens system to the effective diameter of its aperture.