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FFluorescent

The illumination produced from a gas-discharge lamp or tube is called fluorescent light. Electricity to the lamp stimulates the mercury vapor within the lamp creating the emission of electromagnetic radiation which produces the fluorescence. This type of lighting is typically found in office buildings, warehouses and industrial settings. The light produced is “green” or a cooler-than-daylight light balance. Setting a camera’s white balance to Fluorescent will correct for the green cast.

In terms of color temperature, fluorescent light generally falls between 4000 and 5000 degrees Kelvin.

Color Temperature

Light Source

1000-2000 K

      Candlelight

2500-3500 K

      Tungsten Bulb (household variety)

3000-4000 K

      Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky)

4000-5000 K

      Fluorescent Lamps

5000-5500 K

      Electronic Flash

5000-6500 K

      Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead)

6500-8000 K

      Moderately Overcast Sky

9000-10000 K

      Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky

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A/M
A/M stands for Auto-Priority Manual Mode. This mode also enables an easy transition from autofocus to manual during AF operation. Find out more.
Aberration
An aberration prevents light from being brought into sharp focus. Find out more.
Angle of View
See Picture Angle.
Aperture-Priority Auto Exposure
A shutter speed that is automatically selected by the camera to match the photographer's manually set lens aperture for a correct exposure. Especially useful for controlling depth-of-field.
Automatic Exposure Bracketing
A feature that sets the camera to take a series of pictures (usually three) at different exposure settings.
AI-S: Automatic Indexing (modified)
AI-S coupling is a refinement of AI and became standard on NIKKOR lenses in 1982. Find out more.
Archival
The ability of a material, including some printing papers and compact discs, to last for many years.
AF-I NIKKOR Lens
A NIKKOR lens with a built-in conventional rotor type autofocus drive motor.
Automatic Exposure (AE)
With automatic exposure (AE) the camera's computer and metering system automatically select the aperture and shutter speed for a correct exposure.
Action Control
A mode incorporated into the Nikon COOLPIX AW100. When the action control is set to ON, you can control certain functions of the camera simply by swinging it in the air. Find out more.
Angle of Flash Coverage
The measurement in degrees of the angle formed by lines projecting from the center of the flash to the extremities of the field of coverage.
AI-P
A manual-focus NIKKOR lens with a built-in CPU which transfers data from the lens to the camera's metering systems.
Ambient Light
The natural light in a scene.
AE Lock
AE lock is used to hold an automatically selected shutter speed and/or aperture.
Angle of Incidence
The angle of light hitting a surface. A basic rule of physics; the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflectance, which means that the angle of the light coming towards a surface is the same as the angle of light reflected off it. Find out more.
Adjustable Zoom Speeds
Certain 1 NIKKOR lenses feature adjustable zoom speeds, for versatility when shooting both stills and movies.
Anti-Aliasing
An optical process that samples the edges of an image to fill in the missing areas that cause a jagged appearance.
Active D-Lighting
Active D-Lighting optimizes high contrast images to restore the shadow and highlight details that are often lost when strong lighting increases the contrast between bright and dark areas of an image. Find out more.
Audio Monitoring
Using a visual display or auditory (using headphones) to monitor audio levels. Find out more.
A (Non-TTL Auto mode on Nikon Speedlights)
The flash uses its sensor to measure the flash illumination reflected back from the subject controlling flash output to give correct exposure.
AF Lock
Autofocus lock is typically used to hold focus on the part of the scene that's most important to you.
Aspherical Lens
A lens with a curved, non-spherical surface. Used to reduce aberrations and enable a more compact lens size. Find out more.
AF Servo
Essentially, motor-driven autofocus; engage it and a digital SLR's autofocus system will continuously track (focus) on a moving subject.
Angle of Reflectance
See Angle of Incidence.
AVC/H.264 (AVCHD)
Advanced Video Coding is a standard for video compression.
AF Sensor
The AF sensor is a sensor used to detect focus.
Autofocus (AF)
A system of sensors and motors that allow lenses to obtain focus automatically; in some cameras, the system also allows the lens to maintain focus on a moving subject.
APS-C
APS-C stands for Advanced Photo System-type C, which is an image sensor format that is equivalent to approximately the size of the Advanced Photo System negative (25.1x16.7mm). Find out more.
AVI
AVI Stands for Audio Video Interleave, a multimedia format used to record video.
Auto White Balance
In Nikon D-SLRs, Auto White Balance combines with the Scene Recognition System to analyze each scene's light sources, cross-referencing this information with 5,000 actual picture data examples in the camera's onboard white balance database. Find out more.
Astigmatism
One of Seidel's five aberrations. Astigmatism is an aberration that causes points to blur, degrading sharpness. It can be reduced but not eliminated by stopping down the lens.
Aspect Ratio
The width of an image divided by its height. In still photography, common aspect ratios are 4:3 (images from digital cameras) and 3:2 (images from film cameras).
Auto FP High-Speed Sync
Auto FP High Speed Sync is a flash mode used for fill-flash photography under brightly lit conditions. Find out more.
Aperture
The circular opening inside the lens that can change in diameter to control the amount of light reaching a camera's sensor or film. The diameter is expressed in numbers called f/stops; the lower the number, the larger the aperture opening.
A/V Out
Refers to a connection port for output of audio and video from a Nikon camera to a television using RCA plugs (composite yellow for video with mono white or stereo white and red for audio).
AF-S: Autofocus Silent
Focusing is driven by a "Silent Wave" motor in the lens instead of the focus drive motor in the camera. AF-S lenses focus faster than standard AF-NIKKORs and almost completely silently. Find out more.
AF Area Modes
Nikon’s three AF Area Modes—Single Point AF, Dynamic Area AF and Auto Area AF—are designed to handle any shooting situation. Find out more.
Automatic Balanced Fill-Flash
Nikon's TTL (through-the-lens) auto flash operation.
AA (Auto Aperture mode on Nikon Speedlights)
The flash uses its sensor to control the flash output in combination with data automatically transmitted from the camera and lens to the flash including the ISO sensitivity, aperture, focal length and exposure compensation value.
AAC
AAC is a standard audio file format. Nikon cameras record audio to the AAC monaural file format.
AI (Automatic Maximum Aperture Indexing) System
AI became standard on Nikon cameras and NIKKOR lenses in 1977. Find out more.
AF Assist Illuminator
A beam of light automatically activated to provide the camera's autofocus system the necessary light to operate in poorly lit situations. The AF assist illuminator's light does not appear in the picture.
Auto Exposure (AE)
In Auto Exposure mode, the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed and aperture for the optimum exposure for the scene being photographed.
Auto Area AF
See AF Area Modes.
Application
A computer program, such as an image editor or image browser.
Aliasing
A type of digital image distortion most often seen when straight lines or edges in a digital image are enlarged to the point at which they appear jagged.
ASA
Measure of a film's "light gathering" capability. Replaced by ISO for film and digital.