Glossary "W"

A type of finder found on old collectable cameras and most medium format models. The finder has a hood to prevent light reducing contrast as you view directly from the focusing screen. It's called a waist level finder because to use it comfortably you'd hold the camera at waist level.

A black & white print with a brownish tone.

A design that has seals to prevent water finding its way through joins, external controls and screw points. This type of product often has a bulkier bodies but is perfect for water sports and use in bad weather.

Detergent type solution used after the film has had its final wash to lower the surface tension of water and prevent drying marks.

Artificial light appears in a variety of forms - tungsten and fluorescent being two of the most widely used. Each type of lighting produces a different colour temperature that our brain compensates for to make everything appear as though it's neutral light. Digital cameras and film are not so forgiving and record the colour as it really is, so in tungsten light the picture comes out orange/yellow and fluorescent goes green. These colour casts can be corrected using filters on a film based camera, and digital cameras have a white balance setting to make the pictures look like the view our eyes see. Some models have manual white balance control where you select the type of lighting from a list, but most take care of the colour automatically.

A light source that contains a mixture of all wavelengths of the visible spectrum.

A lens with a short focal length used to capture a wider angle of view.

A processing solution used at the strength needed to process a film or printing paper.

Acronym used to describe the writing process of devices such as CD-Rs.

A commonly used saying, pronounced wizzywig, that describes, as it says, what you see on the computer screen is accurately reproduced in printed form.