Glossary

ATW

Auto Tracing White balance. The white balance is automatically adjusted for the lighting conditions during shooting.

Bayonet type

A type of lens mount. The lens can be inserted into the lens mount and fixed in place by rotating a ring.

Black balance

To balance the black level of the R, G, and B signals so that black has no color.

CCD

Abbreviation for charge-coupled device. A semiconductor used in place of a camera tube. The CCD converts light into electrical charge, and outputs the electrical charge in the form of varying voltages.

Center marker

A cross on the viewfinder screen that indicates the center of an image.

Color bar signals

Test signals displayed on the screen as multicolored vertical stripes. Used for adjustment of hue, and saturation of a video camera and video monitor.

Color conversion filter (CC filter)

A filter that converts the color temperature to a reference value so the same picture tone is obtained in different lighting conditions.

Color temperature

The color quality of light, expressed in Kelvin (K).

Composite video signal A signal that consists of video (luminance and color sub carrier), sync (horizontal and vertical), and color burst signals.

CTL

Abbreviation for control signal. A signal that you can count to determine the number of frames, and therefore the tape's running time. It is

used mainly to adjust the tracking position of video heads, and to achieve time code continuity when recording continuously. This signal is recorded in a longitudinal tape track.

DCC

Abbreviation for dynamic contrast control. In a high contrast environment, this function compresses the high light signal by adjusting the knee point automatically, allowing you to take clear pictures in a dynamic range.

Drop frame mode

SMPTE time code runs at 30 frames/ second, while the NTSC color television system runs at about 29.97 frames/second. Drop frame mode adjusts the running of time code to eliminate the discrepancy between time code value and actual time by dropping two frames from the time code value at the beginning of each minute except every tenth minute.

Drum

A metal cylinder to which the video heads are attached. During recording and playback, the drum rotates at high speed in synchronization with a control signal.

EBU

Abbreviation for European Broadcasting Union. A professional broadcasting establishment in Europe.

EXT TC (External time code) A time code input from external equipment together with audio data. It corresponds to the conventional time code recorded on tape based media. Instead the EXT TC is usually used to record time codes and audio signals that are played back by equipment that is not synchronized with the reference video signal.

Ff

See “Flange focal length”.

Flange focal length

The length between the objective lens and the surface of the imager.

Flare

The loss of contrast in an image caused by unnecessary light that strays into the image plane.

Flicker

Repeated changes in screen brightness caused by an interference between the camera's scanning and the lighting conditions.

GENLOCK

A state in which devices are locked to a signal output by a sync generator. Genlock allows multiple devices to operate in synchronization.

HAD

Abbreviation for hole-accumulated diode. A CCD sensor structure designed to suppress certain types of noise inherent to CCDs.

Head drum

See “Drum”.

Horizontal resolution

The horizontal resolution of the screen, which is expressed as the number of vertical lines distinguishable when shooting a test chart.

i.LINK

Another name for the IEEE1394- 1995 standards and their revisions. XDCAM uses the i.LINK interface to transfer DV streams by the AV/C protocol, and toread and write MPEG IMX and DVCAM data files by FAM (File Access Mode).

Interlaced scan mode

A scanning method in which odd rows fields are read alternately with even rows. (Odd-row fields and evenrow fields contain images from different times.)

ND filter

Abbreviation for neutral density filter. A filter that reduces the amount of incident light equally across the entire visible wavelength range without affecting color.

Non-drop frame mode

A mode of advancing time code which ignores the difference in frame values between real time and the time

Appendix 7 Chapter

Glossary 135