Camera terms, in plain English

Plain-English definitions for the terms that turn up on GR spec sheets, so you can look up something like UHS-I without leaving.

aperture

How wide the lens opens. Written as f/2.8 — smaller number, more light.

How wide the lens opening is, written as f/2.8, f/5.6 and so on. A smaller number means a wider opening, letting in more light and blurring the background more. Every GR opens to f/2.8 at its widest.

APS-C

A sensor size — bigger than a phone's, smaller than a "full-frame" camera.

The size of the light-sensitive chip inside the camera. APS-C is considerably larger than a phone sensor, which is most of why a GR produces different-looking pictures from a phone, and smaller than the "full-frame" sensors in bigger professional cameras.

CIPA

An industry test standard, so battery life claims can be compared between brands.

A standardised test that camera makers use to quote battery life, so numbers from different brands can be compared. Real-world results vary with how you shoot.

focal length

How wide or tight the view is. GRs are fixed — 28mm is wider, 40mm tighter.

How much of the scene fits in the picture. No GR zooms, so this is fixed when you buy it. 28mm takes in more of the scene; 40mm is tighter and closer to how your eye naturally frames things.

guide number

A measure of how powerful a flash is. Higher means it lights subjects further away.

hot shoe

The metal slot on top of a camera for attaching a flash or viewfinder.

image stabilisation

Built-in shake reduction, so handheld shots come out sharper in dim light.

The sensor physically moves to cancel out small hand movements, which lets you take sharper pictures in dimmer light without a tripod. Ricoh calls its version "Shake Reduction". More axes means it corrects more kinds of movement.

ISO

How sensitive the camera is to light. Higher lets you shoot in the dark, but adds grain.

A sensitivity setting. Raising it lets you take pictures in darker conditions, at the cost of a grainier, noisier image. The very top of any camera's ISO range is a marketing figure rather than a setting you would actually use.

MTP

The mode a camera uses to appear as a device when you plug it into a computer.

A way of connecting the camera to a computer or phone by cable so it shows up as a device you can copy files from, without needing any app.

ND filter

A built-in dark filter, for shooting wide-open in bright sun.

Effectively sunglasses for the lens. It cuts the light entering the camera so you can use a wide aperture or a slow shutter in bright conditions. It is not a low-light tool — leaving it on after dark just costs you light.

RAW

The camera's unprocessed image file — bigger, but far more editable afterwards.

An unprocessed image file straight off the sensor. It takes more space and needs editing software, but keeps far more detail to work with than a finished JPEG.

snap focus

Pre-set the focus distance so the camera shoots instantly, with no focusing delay.

Instead of focusing when you press the button, the camera is told in advance to focus at a set distance — say two metres — and simply fires. It removes the pause while the camera hunts for focus, which is the main reason people carry a GR.

UHS-I

A memory-card speed rating. All GR cameras use UHS-I; a faster card gains nothing.

A speed class for SD cards. Every current GR supports UHS-I, so paying more for a faster UHS-II card gets you nothing on these cameras.