Introduction
Having learned most of what I know about photography on the Internet in English, I often had trouble communicating with others in Taiwan about the subject due to a lack of functional photography-related Chinese vocabulary. I gave up on the search for a dedicated, comprehensive glossary long ago. However, taken up by the spirit of a fresh blog, I figured I’d conjure one up of my own, hopefully saving others much time and frustration. Here is my list, distilled from my experiences talking and learning from others.
This is by no means a complete list, so if you see something I’m missing (this is all off the top of my head) or got wrong, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment and I’ll make sure to update the list. So, without further ado, my English-Chinese Glossary Photography Terms Glossary.
How to use this glossary
I’ve split the glossary into two parts, a generic list sorted alphabetically in English and a short list of quirky names for products that may be useful. Items in the list follow the format of:
English word — Chinese translation (in Traditional Chinese) — Pinyin romanization — additional notes
Derivative items will be placed under there mother item. I may add Zhuyin symbols later, if I have the time and/or there is a demand for them. Please note that everything in this list is in Traditional Chinese (since I feel Simplified Chinese is a tragedy of both aesthetics and culture), and these are words used in the Republic of China (Taiwan). I cannot vouch for their effectiveness in mainland China.
Alphabetical listing
A
- Aperture — 光圈 — guāng quān
- Autofocus — 自動對焦 — zì dòng duì jiāo
B
- Battery — 電池 — diàn chí
- Battery grip — 電池手把 — diàn chí shǒu bà
C
- Camera – 照相機 — zhào xiàng jī
- CompactFlash card (CF) — CF卡 — CF kǎ
D
- Digital — 數位 – shù wèi
F
- Film — 底片 — dǐ piàn
- Flash — 閃光 — shǎn guāng
- External flash — 外接閃光 — wài jiē shǎn guāng
H
- Hotshoe — 熱靴 — rè xuē
- Coldshoe – 冷靴 – lěng xuē
I
- Infrared — 紅外 — hóng wài
L
- Lens — 鏡頭 — jìng tóu
- Prime lens — 定焦鏡頭 — dìng jiāo jìng tóu
- Zoom lens — 變焦鏡頭 — biàn jiāo jìng tóu
- Lightstand — 燈架 — dēng jià
P
- Polarizing filter — 偏光鏡 — piān guāng jìng
R
- Reflector — 反光板 — fǎn guāng bǎn
S
- Secure Digital card (SD) — SD卡 — SD kǎ
- Shutter — 快門 — kuài mén
- Shutter speed — 快門速度 — kuài mén sù dù
- Softbox — 柔光箱 — róu guāng xiāng
T
- Tripod — 三腳架 — sān jiǎo jià
U
- Umbrella – 傘 — sǎn
- Reflective umbrella — 反光傘 — fǎn guāng sǎn
- Shoot-through umbrella – 透光傘 / 柔光傘 — tòu guāng sǎn / róu guāng sǎn
W
- Wireless — 無線 — wú xiàn
Products
- Holy Trinity of f/2.8 zooms (e.g. 14-24, 24-70, 70-200) – 大三元 — dà sān yuán
- Nikon AF 80-200mm f/2.8D ED — 小黑三 — xiǎo hēi sān
- Nikon AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8 IF-ED – 小黑四 — xiǎo hēi sì
- Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR — 小黑五 — xiǎo hēi wǔ
- Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VRII – 小黑六 — xiǎo hēi liù
- PocketWizard — 普威 — pǔ wēi
Change log:
2011/11/10
- [Changed] Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G to Holy Trinity of f/2.8 zooms (e.g. 14-24, 24-70, 70-200) — 大三元 — dà sān yuán
- Thanks to camike on the Taiwan Photo Club Flickr group.
- [Added] Camera – 照相機 — zhào xiàng jī
