The Lexicon

Film & Camera Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms that come up when shooting analog point-and-shoots.

Aperture (f-number): The size of the lens opening. Lower f-number = wider opening = more light + shallower depth of field.; f/2.8 is much wider (and lets in much more light) than f/8. Premium prime compacts open to f/2.8 or f/2.4; zoom compacts often start at f/4.5 wide and slow to f/8.9 or worse zoomed in. The aperture also controls depth of field — wider apertures throw the background out of focus.
DX code: The silver/black checkerboard on a 35mm film canister that tells the camera the film's ISO speed.; Introduced by Kodak in 1983, the DX (Digital indeX) code is a pattern of conductive squares on the side of a 35mm canister. Contacts inside the camera read the pattern and automatically set the ISO. Most autoexposure compacts are DX-only — if the canister has no DX code (some bulk-loaded or re-canistered film), the camera silently defaults to ISO 100, underexposing higher-speed film by one or more stops.
Exposure latitude: How far you can over- or under-expose a film and still get a usable image.; Modern colour negative film (Portra, Gold, Ektar) has roughly +3 / -2 stops of latitude — extremely forgiving. Slide film (E-6) has about ±½ stop and is very unforgiving. Black & white negative film like HP5 or Tri-X tolerates ±2 stops. Wide latitude is why simple cameras with mediocre meters still produce great photos on negative film.
Fill flash: Forcing the flash on in daylight to fill in shadows.; Useful at midday when harsh overhead sun puts the eyes and chin in deep shadow under a hat. Also great for backlit subjects (e.g. against a sunset) where the camera would otherwise meter for the bright background and silhouette your subject. Activated via the lightning-bolt icon, often labelled 'forced flash' or 'fill in'.
Grain: The visible texture of silver crystals (or dye clouds) in a developed film image.; Higher-ISO films have larger grain because the silver halide crystals are bigger to capture more light. Grain is part of the analog look — soft and creamy on Portra 400, sharp and pronounced on Tri-X 400, very visible on cinema-style stocks like Cinestill 800T. Underexposing or pushing film also accentuates grain.
ISO (film speed): A number that measures how sensitive a film is to light. Higher = more sensitive = needs less light.; ISO 100 needs bright sun, ISO 400 handles overcast and shade, ISO 800+ works indoors and at night. Each doubling of ISO is one stop more sensitivity but adds visible grain. On point-and-shoots, the ISO is usually set automatically from the DX code.
Lens fungus: A spider-web pattern of mould that grows inside lens elements stored in humid conditions.; Looks like fine white branches between the glass elements. Mild fungus only slightly lowers contrast; heavy fungus etches the coatings permanently. Prevent it by storing cameras in a dry place with silica gel — never sealed in plastic bags. Treatable by a repair tech for $80–$150 if caught early.
Light seals: Foam strips around the film door that block stray light.; Old foam seals deteriorate into black goo after 15–25 years and let light leak onto the film, ruining frames with red or yellow streaks. Replacement kits cost $5–$15 and the swap takes about 30 minutes with a toothpick and isopropyl alcohol. Mandatory maintenance on any camera over 20 years old.
Parallax: The offset between what the viewfinder sees and what the lens actually captures.; Compact cameras have a separate viewfinder above and to the side of the lens, so close subjects appear higher in the frame than where the lens records them. Most viewfinders show parallax-correction marks (a second set of framelines) for use under ~1.5 m. Becomes negligible past 3 m.
Prime lens: A lens with a single fixed focal length — no zoom.; Compact primes (Contax T2 38mm, Ricoh GR1 28mm, Olympus mju-II 35mm, Yashica T4 35mm) are sharper, faster (f/2.8 or wider) and better in low light than zoom compacts. The trade-off is no framing flexibility — you 'zoom with your feet'.
Push / pull processing: Telling the lab to develop film as if it were a different ISO than what's printed on the box.; 'Push +1' means develop a roll for one stop more sensitivity (e.g. shoot Tri-X 400 at EI 800, develop +1). 'Pull -1' is the opposite. Pushing increases contrast and grain; pulling lowers contrast. Useful for low-light shooting on a camera that can't change ISO, but the whole roll must be exposed at the same EI.
Shutter speed: How long the shutter stays open, in seconds or fractions of a second.; 1/500 s freezes motion; 1/30 s blurs movement; 1 s is a long exposure. As a rule of thumb, the slowest hand-holdable shutter speed is roughly 1/focal length (1/60 s for a 50mm lens). Slower than that and you risk blurry photos from camera shake.
Slow-sync flash: A flash mode that keeps the shutter open longer to expose for ambient background light.; Normally, flash sync uses a fast shutter speed and the background goes black. Slow-sync (often a moon icon or 'night mode') uses a slow speed plus the flash burst — the flash freezes your subject and the long exposure captures the warm ambient background. Brace the camera; subjects must hold still.
Snap focus: A pre-set fixed focus distance that fires instantly with no AF lag.; Found on cameras like the Ricoh GR1 series, some Olympus mju models and a handful of others. Often set to ~2 m or to infinity. Press the shutter and the photo is taken immediately — perfect for street photography where AF hunt would miss the moment.
Stop: A doubling or halving of light. The universal unit of exposure in photography.; One stop more light = twice as much. Aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all measured in stops. Going from f/4 to f/2.8 is one stop more light; from 1/125 s to 1/60 s is one stop more; from ISO 200 to ISO 400 is one stop more sensitivity.
Zoom compact: A point-and-shoot with a variable-focal-length lens (e.g. 38–140mm).; Far more versatile for travel and family snapshots than a prime, but typically slower (f/4.5–f/8.9), softer at the long end, larger and noisier. Examples: Pentax Espio 120SW, Olympus Stylus Zoom, Nikon Zoom-Touch.