EXPLANATION OF TERMS

NTSC

National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) video format is primarily used in the United States, Japan, Canada etc. The NTSC is a standard for television and videos, which defines a composite video signal with a refresh rate of 60 half-frames (interlaced) per second. Each frame contains 525 lines and can contain 16 million different colors.

PAL

Phase Alternating Line (PAL), video format primarily used in Europe, excluding France, as well as Australia and parts of the Far East. PAL delivers 625 lines at 50 half-frames per second.

RAW

The RAW image format is the data as it comes directly from the image sensor of the camera. No in-camera processing is performed before transferring the image to computer.

Shutter Speed

The camera’s shutter opens for a length of time to control the amount of light that reaches the imaging element. The length of time that shutter blinds are open allowing light to strike the image sensor is called as shutter speed.

White Balance

The human eye and brain adapt to changes in lighting conditions, not only to intensity, but also to the color characteristic of the light source, so that colors of the objects look normal or accurate. For example, a white object will appear white whether it is viewed under sunlight, tungsten or fluorescent illumination. However, color film or digital camera must be adjusted, so that colors will be represented accurately, under different types of illumination. This adjustment is called white balance. The function to adjust a white balance automatically is called automatic white balance.

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