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New to digital photography and still struggling with the basic technical jargon? We explain some of the most commonly used terms to help you get started.

Aperture: The opening inside the lens that controls the amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor.

Auto exposure mode: Many cameras can control the exposure, shutter speed and aperture to compensate for available light.

Avi: A file format used by Microsoft Windows that contains video and sound.

Digital zoom: This is a type of zoom on digital cameras that imitates a regular 35mm zoom by enlarging the centre section of the subject. It does not, however, increase the amount of detail, so the further you zoom in, the more the image will degrade.

Dpi/Ppi: Dots per inch/Pixels per inch: a measurement of the resolution of a digital photo or device. For example, 72Ppi means there are 72 x 72 pixels in every inch of an image.

Fill flash: A flash feature included on some digital cameras that forces the flash to fire, even in bright light. It can be useful when taking pictures in sunlight, removing unwanted shadows from faces and making objects appear more colourful.

FireWire, IEEE 1394: A cable for transferring data to and from peripheral devices at high speed. It is used as a faster alternative to USB by many digital cameras.

Image stabilisation: Many camcorders compensate for some degree of camera shake during recording by capturing a larger frame and cropping the edges of the image electronically when the camera moves.

Jpeg: This is the most commonly used digital image format and is universally compatible with image viewers and editing software. It allows photographic images to be compressed with little noticeable loss in image quality.

Macro mode: A lens mode that allows you to get very close to objects so they appear greatly enlarged in the picture. Very handy for taking photos of small subjects.

Memory card: Many cameras and camcorders store images and video on removable memory cards which can be read by a card reader connected to your computer.

Megapixel: One million pixels, a unit of measurement in an image.

Pixels: The small picture elements (dots) that make up a digital photograph.

Resolution: This is the number and density of pixels an image contains. The more pixels used, the more detail can be seen and therefore the higher the image's resolution.

Shutter lag: The time between the shutter being pressed and the image captured. It can be a real problem when shooting moving subjects.

Tiff: A widely used file format that is compatible with most image editing and viewing programs, though not supported by web browsers.

USB cable: A cable for transferring data to and from peripheral devices. USB is faster than serial or parallel connections, though not as fast as FireWire.

White balance: As most light sources are not 100% pure white, a digital camera needs to find a reference point which represents white. It will then calculate all the other colours based on this white point.