Have you ever been shopping for a camera, but been bamboozled by a barrage of acronyms that you didn't recognise?

Sure, they all sound great, but it's useful to understand what they mean so that you can choose the right camera. Part one of this article will clear up three of six acronyms that you're sure to encounter.

DSLR
A Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera combines a single-lens reflex camera (SLR) with a digital camera back. But what does this mean for you and your photography?

You'll be able to capture shots exactly as you see them, as opposed to having colours skewed in preparation for print. And you capture them as digital photos, rather than images recorded to film. This 'what you see is what you get' principle is achieved through the camera's mirror-and-prism format which works as follows: light passes through the lens and bounces upwards off a mirror into a prism, which reflects the light through the viewfinder to the human eye.

DSLR cameras boast several other benefits, including the fact that they enable users to capture images of a very high quality. This is due to the large electronic imaging sensor used by the digital camera.

And the ability to change lenses gives you great versatility because a lens can affect many aspects of a photo, including the colour, contrast, clarity and saturation.

Another benefit of DSLR cameras is their near-zero lag time, which is the time between the user pressing the shutter and the camera capturing the shot. This is particularly helpful in action photography where you might only have a split second to get the perfect picture.

HDR
High Dynamic Range, an idea conceived as early as 1850, is a photographic technique. It enables the user to capture a greater range of light-to-dark areas in a photo than would be possible in a standard camera shot. The outcome means improved accuracy in the photo's intensity levels.

The technique is achieved by capturing several shots simultaneously (known as bracketing),even though the shutter has only been pressed once. These captured images are all shot at different exposure levels and, when merged, give a more accurate representation of the light-to-dark range.

HDR is measured in EV (Exposure Value) differences, which determine contrast. A DSLR camera has a contrast of 2048:1; twice that of a standard digital camera which is 1024:1.

HDR images are often known as 'scene-referred' because they more closely reflect what the human eye sees than standard photos.

ISO
Derived from the International Organisation for Standardisation, ISO originally referred to the speed of photographic negative materials. It denotes the sensitivity to the amount of light in a shot.

Simply put, the higher the ISO, the more sensitive the film is to light and the better your shots will be in a low-light scene. In daylight, a setting of no more than 100 is ideal. In low light, the camera needs a bit of help, which you can provide by increasing the ISO.

This can also be useful when you are taking action shots because it reduces the likelihood of a blurred image. However, be wary of going too high with your ISO setting; this will cause noise to appear.

Most cameras have an automatic ISO setting that adjusts according to the amount of light in a scene. If you do need to choose a high ISO value, to create artistic effects for example, you're better doing it with a DSLR camera. They provide a larger electronic imaging sensor, which gives you a broader ISO range than a point-and-shoot digital camera.

The three acronyms above should give you some idea of what to look for when it comes to buying a camera. But to be fully prepared, have a look at another three acronyms in part two.