Smartphone- Camera terms explained !

Whenever you compare your smart phone’s camera with other smart phone’s camera you often find some terms whose meanings you don’t know.

In this article I will explain each and every term related to smart phone’s camera.

To become a smart phone camera expert, continue reading this article.

1. BOKEH

Bokeh is a Japanese word which means out of focus.

When you click a picture of any subject, then the main focus remains on the subject and rest of things remain out of focus.

For example: 

When you click a picture of your friend, then the main focus remains on your friend and rest of the things like background trees and walls, remains out of focus or we can say blur.

In cameras like DSLR, bokeh mode is done through hardware and in smart phones, bokeh mode is done through software.

2. ISO

ISO tells us that, how much the camera’s sensor is sensitive towards the light.

If ISO is 100 that means camera’s sensor is less sensitive towards the light.

It means, to get a good picture, your smart phone’s camera requires good amount of light. And that camera is capable of clicking good picture in bright light.

If your smart phone’s camera has an  ISO between 2400-3200, then your camera will able to click good picture in low light.

When you click picture in high ISO, there will be noise in the picture i.e. picture will be not clear and the pixels will be visible in the picture.

Whereas, when you click picture in low ISO, you get clear and good picture but it requires good amount of light.

Camera terms explained

3. RESOLUTION

Image is made up of pixels.

Different color pixels combine together to form a picture. In a picture millions of pixels are present.

If your phone has a 13 MP (mega pixel) camera, it means that, it clicks pictures having 13 million pixels in it.

If your smart phone has 48 MP camera, then it means, it will click pictures having 48 million pixels in it.

So, resolution means how many pixels are present in a picture. If a picture has more resolution, then that picture will be clearer. 

4. APERTURE 

Whenever you open your camera and try to click a picture, then the camera’s lens opens to gather information about the view/surrounding image.

After gathering the information, the camera’s lens closes. 

In simple language, camera's lens is like a door.

Door opens to gather information. If door opens more then, more information can enter and if, doors opens less then, very less information can come inside.

Similar things happen in the camera’s lens.

When it opens more, it can gather more light and more information about the picture. Therefore we will get an excellent output i.e. a very good pic.

If the aperture of the camera is of F1.7 or F1.8 that means, the size of opening of lens is more.

If the aperture of camera is F2.3 or F2.8 then the opening size of camera’s lens is less.

Camera's Aperture

So, it is recommended for users to buy smart phone whose camera has a small aperture than F1.8.

It will produce a brighter and clear picture. 

Especially the cameras having small apertures perform excellent in low light.

5. RAW files

Any picture’s RAW file (original picture) occupies more space, so RAW file is compressed and stored in jpg format, so that it occupies less space.

RAW files stores more information about picture like information about light, colours, etc that’s why RAW files occupy more space.

Experts who require high quality images or videos, they store them in RAW file. Normal user should store the file in jpg format only.

6. Night Mode

Night mode is based on the software, by the help of certain algorithm, it brings light in the picture.

Night mode checks the darker pixel and makes the entire dark pixels brighter. 

7. MACRO LENS

For small objects, we use macro lens.

When you try to capture an image of small objects like insects or fine particles of sand etc, then you will find that normal camera is not able to focus on the insect and we are not getting a clear image.

Here we use macro lens, to get clear image of such small objects.

8. Ultra wide lens

Ultra wide lens are in oval shape, so that it can capture picture in wider angle.

9. TOF (Time Of Flight) lens

TOF measures the distance between the main subject (cat, dog, human, etc) and the background (wall, etc) by the help of infrared rays.

Because of this lens, we get good bokeh mode picture.

TOF sensor tells the camera to keep a focus on the main subject and rest of the things out of focus (blur).
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10. Artificial Intelligence (AI) mode –

By the help of certain algorithms, camera detects the picture weather it is of a flower, food, person or anything.

After detecting the picture, it does some settings and improves the picture and make the picture pleasing to the eyes and catchy.

11. HDR (High Dynamic range)

This feature comes in use, when you take a picture of anything in which, both- a dark side as well as a bright side is present.

For example:

When you take the picture of a tree in a bright sunny day then, if you try to focus on the bright sunny side, then the tree and its shadow both will become completely dark. 

And when you try to focus on the darker side, then, the bright sun will become completely white and the sun will be not visible in the picture.

So to get a good picture in this condition we take the help of HDR.

When we click a picture using HDR, then our camera clicks two images.

One focusing on the brighter side and another focusing on the darker side.

After that, our camera combines both the pictures and we get a well balanced picture as our output.

12.Slow Motion –

This feature can be used to record videos in slow motion. Here is how it works.

When you shoot a normal video, it is recorded at 30 fps (Frames Per Second).

It means that, camera will click 30 frames (picture) per second and then it will combine the frames to form 1 second video.

But when you record a video in slow motion, then the camera clicks 240 frames per second.

It means camera will shoot the video in 240 fps and then that video is converted into 30 fps i.e. 30 frames per second. So, when you shoot a 1 second slow motion video, it is converted to an 8 seconds video. 

13. Time Laps –

This feature can be used to record videos in faster speed.

Time laps is just the opposite of slow motion.

When you shoot a normal video, then the camera clicks 30 frames per second. And when you use time lapse, time laps camera will click only 1 frame per second. So when you shoot a video of 30 seconds, the video you will get will be of 1 second.

In slow motion, camera clicks more frames per second and in time laps, camera clicks fewer frames per second.

14. EIS (Electronic image stabilization) and OIS (optical image stabilization)

While recording a video, we often find that our hand shake and because of that we get a shaky and an unstable video. To make a video stable, EIS and OIS are helpful.

1. OIS (optical image stabilization)

OIS makes a video stable by hardware. It means that the camera moves up and down, left and right to compensate the movement of hand.

For example: if the phone moves downwards, then to compensate the phone’s movement, the camera will move upwards. Similar things happens for all types of movements. And the output we get is a stable video.

2. EIS (Electronic image stabilization)

It makes the video stable by the help of software and certain algorithms.

It crops the video from all side by the help of software and adjusts the video and in the output we get a stable video.

15. Optical zoom, Hybrid zoom and Digital zoom.

1. Optical zoom -

When you zoom from a DSLR camera, then it is done through hardware. Actual movement i.e. forward and backward of lens zooming takes place. This is known as optical zoom. 

In some flagship smart phones, we find optical zoom. The lens move forward and backward to adjust the zoom.

In optical zoom there is no loss of picture quality.

2. Digital zoom –

Digital zoom is done through software. It is same like, we zoom picture manually.

In digital zoom there is loss of picture quality.

3. Hybrid zoom – 

It is the mixture of optical and digital zoom.

If we assume that a phone has 5X hybrid zoom then, it means that up-to 3X it has optical zoom and further remaining 2X is digital zoom.

In Hybrid zoom there is no loss of picture quality until zooming takes place under optical zoom. 

Conclusion

we hope that we have clearly explained the various terms used in camera application, in easy language. 
Thanks for reading :)