Episode 0171

And my name is Catherine. So, uh, Marco, what are we talking about here today?

we go shopping a lot here at English Pod, but uh this is an upper intermediate level lesson, so we've got some very specific terminology to cover.

Exactly. We're going shopping for a digital camera. So we're going to be talking about very specific, maybe a little bit technical vocab related to this very fascinating and expensive product.

Uh, let's take a listen to the dialogue for the first time, and when we come back, we can talk about some of the really interesting details.

Hello ma'am, can I help you find something?

Yes, actually. I'm looking to buy a camera.

We've got a wide selection. Do you know if you'd like a point and shoot or something a little fancier? Are you shopping for yourself or for someone else?

Actually, I'm buying a camera for my husband.

Ah, well then I'd recommend a nice entry level digital SLR.

Yeah? Can I take a look at the SLRs you carry?

This here is the...

Uh the Canon EOS? Yeah, it's okay, but I'm looking for something that performs better in low light, has a better display panel and longer battery life.

Oh, uh, um, the Nikon D60 is a nice option.

Yeah, but what kit lens does this camera come with? I don't want some bulky telephoto lens.

Ah, well, this one has the uh...

Looks to me like an 18 to 55 mm lens. Pretty standard, that'll do. Not like my husband will be stalking celebrities or anything.

So, can I interest you in any accessories?

Accessories? Do you carry polarizing filters?

Polarizing filters.

Um, we, we should.

I'm sorry, ma'am, looks like we're sold out.

Oh, well, would you look at that? Polarizing filters.

Thanks for your help, Ralph.

No problem, ma'am.

Uh, well, we can get to that later like I said, but uh there are some very important words that anyone who wants to buy a camera should know before they go into the store.

And these are common across the board. So, let's take a look at these in today's language takeaway.

All right, so in language takeaway today, we have our first um difference.

Now, it's very important to know the difference between point and shoot camera and the digital SLR.

Okay, so digital everyone knows digital now, right? That's the kind of photography we have. You don't use film, okay, it uses a memory card to record digital images.

But point and shoot are those little cameras where you just click and it takes a picture. There's no lens, uh special, there's no additional lens, there's no special add-ons. It's a small rectangle and you just take normal pictures.

And that's the kind of camera that like my mom uses, and I have it in my purse, or whatever. It's just easy to use.

Um, but the digital SLR is a kind of camera that's like the old SLR where you have an like a an attachment of a you have a body and you have a lens, and they're just much fancier and you have to do a lot more on your own to make a nice picture.

Now SLR, that's an acronym, do you know what it stands for?

So an SLR is a single lens reflex camera. And that means that there's a lot more you have to do as the photographer to make sure that the picture comes out well.

Right. So it's really interesting because you can actually play with the lens, like the focus, and uh you know how much light you want to allow it to go in, and there's a lot of really, you know, sometimes a little bit difficult things that not many people understand.

Exactly. And so I think that's why it's good to do some research before you buy one because there's so many differences across the different cameras.

Okay, now both on digital SLRs and on point and shoot cameras, you have something that's called a display panel.

That's right. So a display panel is usually covered in plastic, and it's uh the area that tells you how many pictures you've taken, how many pictures you can take, if the flash is on, if you're doing an automatic setting. So it's like the little computer monitor that tells you what's going on with the camera.

Usually after you take a picture, you can also see how it came out, right? In that moment.

Exactly, and so a lot of times with these fancy cameras, you want to know if the how big the display panel is, um and how good the quality is in the display panel.

Because obviously if you take a picture and it shows up bad in the display panel, you want to take a new one, but what if it's the display panel that's broken?

Right, right.

Okay, very good. And that's actually one of the great advantages of digital cameras that you can actually see how your picture looks like.

Exactly.

Nice. All right, now when she was looking to buy this digital SLR, she mentioned something about a kit lens.

Okay, this is fancy camera terminology, right? Because if you buy a point and shoot, there's no lens. It's just the camera.

But if you're buying a fancy digital SLR, you can buy the body, which means the the machine, but there's no lens. So normally people will sell, stores will sell cameras with a kit lens. That means they make a kit or they make a combination for you.

So it's the body and the lens.

Exactly. But if you want, you can buy the body and the lens separate, maybe you want a really fancy lens.

Exactly. So what's a kind of fancy lens we might buy?

A telephoto lens.

Ooh, so these are the really big lenses for super close-up shots from from a distance, right? So you think of um maybe professional photographers or photojournalists who have these kind of lenses. They're big and they're bulky and they're not for traveling.

Usually you see them in like sporting events, right? They're on the side of the field and they have these big white, they're usually white lenses on their camera so you can actually take a very close picture of the action that's far away.

Exactly. And it's really good for those kind of things where you have action or where you're trying to get close-ups.

And now if one of these accessories that could go well with a telephoto lens or any digital SLR is a polarizing filter.

Okay, so filter, um is something that takes certain elements out of something else. So we can filter coffee, for example, and it takes the coffee grounds out and leaves the water.

Um, but in a camera, a polarizing filter is something we put onto the the glass of the lens to change the way that light goes into the lens.

Okay. So in this way, you take a picture maybe of a very sunny day and it will look differently if you didn't have this filter.

Exactly. And you can also have a UV filter, which does similar things with UV rays in the in the sunlight.

And um these are just filters are things you put on the camera and polarizing means that you're splitting up, right, the the the kind of light that goes in.

Okay. Very good. Very technical terms and uh but they're very useful, especially if you're looking to buy one of these cameras and you're not very familiar with the terms.

Um, but why don't we move on now to some very interesting phrases that we saw in the dialogue on fluency builder?

All right, so on fluency builder, our first phrase today is uh entry-level. What's an entry-level digital SLR?

Okay, well, entry-level is something that we can use for any kind of purchase. So any kind of thing that we buy.

Um, in the case of a camera, an entry-level is not for an expert or professional, it's something for someone who's buying one for the first time, okay?

Like for beginners.

For beginners. So entry-level is like entry, beginning, starting. Um, we can have an entry-level, um job where you don't need training or experience, right?

An entry-level camera where you don't need uh long experience with fancy cameras or training to know how to use it.

Okay, very good. So that's an entry-level camera, but as you mentioned, we can also use it for the job, an entry-level job position.

All right, what about uh our second phrase?

Oh, okay. So this one goes with the telephoto lens, right? She says, I don't need a telephoto lens. My husband doesn't need a telephoto lens.

It's not like he's going to be stalking celebrities.

Okay, so we have this verb here, to stalk.

To stalk, that means to follow someone around, and to look at them, and to watch them, and to not leave them alone.

Now she mentioned this because this is a very, um, very interesting and closely associated topic with photographers. You know, you have the paparazzi who follow celebrities, and they have these big telephoto lenses, so they can take pictures of celebrities without them knowing.

Exactly. And so you you imagine someone in a tree with a big telephoto lens taking a photo of someone famous who's, you know, half a mile away.

And uh and stalking celebrities is something that's a bad thing, right?

Yeah, yeah, it's bad. But it's very common. And also illegal, I think. And I think it's illegal.

All right.

And uh, what about our last phrase?

Would you look at that?

Well, he said it in a very surprised tone, right? Kind of like he didn't really expect to find the polarizing filters.

Right, so he's embarrassed, okay? Would you look at that means, oh wow, I'm surprised.

Right? So it's, it's awkward.

Right? So you could say um, Marco, you got a little bit of uh food on your shirt, you've had it for like an hour.

Oh, oh my god, would you look at that? Oh, the beans that, uh. That's really embarrassing. I've got food on my shirt.

So this man, this man who works at the store, he's embarrassed because he didn't know something he should know.

And so he says, oh, would you look at that? How funny. I didn't see those.

Now we can also maybe use it in a sarcastic tone, right? If I tell somebody, can you bring me the my my my glasses that are on the table? And they're like, I can't find them, they're not here. And then I find them. Would you look at that? Here they are.

All right, very good.

So why don't we listen to the dialogue for the last time, and we'll be back to talk about digital SLRs?

Hello ma'am, can I help you find something?

Yes, actually. I'm looking to buy a camera.

We've got a wide selection. Do you know if you'd like a point and shoot or something a little fancier? Are you shopping for yourself or for someone else?

Actually, I'm buying a camera for my husband.

Ah, well then I'd recommend a nice entry level digital SLR.

Yeah? Can I take a look at the SLRs you carry?

This here is the...

Uh the Canon EOS? Yeah, it's okay, but I'm looking for something that performs better in low light, has a better display panel and longer battery life.

Oh, uh, um, the Nikon D60 is a nice option.

Yeah, but what kit lens does this camera come with? I don't want some bulky telephoto lens.

Ah, well, this one has the uh...

Looks to me like an 18 to 55 mm lens. Pretty standard, that'll do. Not like my husband will be stalking celebrities or anything.

So, can I interest you in any accessories?

Accessories? Do you carry polarizing filters?

Polarizing filters.

Um, we, we should.

I'm sorry, ma'am, looks like we're sold out.

Oh, well, would you look at that? Polarizing filters.

Thanks for your help, Ralph.

No problem, ma'am.

All right, we're back. So you mentioned you recently bought a digital SLR camera. How's that working out?

Because uh I used to have uh an old film camera that had uh it was actually a Nikon as well. And it's uh it's different using a digital SLR. There's a lot of things you can do that are very fancy because you actually there's a computer inside essentially.

And uh what about the difference in pictures? Like from a point and shoot to a digital SLR? Does it really make a great difference? Are you very happy with it?

There is a big difference, and part of the difference is that you can control every aspect of the photo, okay?

So my digital camera was a small little Canon, you know the little um what are they called? The PowerShot. And uh it made it took great pictures because, you know, these cameras have amazing pixel quality, right? They have like 7.1 megapixels or like 9.1 megapixels. So the quality is really good, but everything looks the same.

If I have my digital camera, my digital SLR, I can frame a shot and I can focus on one person but make everyone else blurry. I can really make more artistic photos.

Whereas the point and shoot is great for parties and for just like everyday stuff.

Now what about traveling? It you have a dilemma there, right? Because you visit very beautiful places where you would love to to take very nice pictures with a digital SLR, but at the same time the inconvenience of it of actually, because they're pretty big, all of them are pretty big.

So where would you go on that? Would you use a point and shoot or the digital SLR?

Well, that's a good question. One of the reasons that I picked the lens that I did is because it's not immense. But I really want to be able to do some like landscape photography, and I travel a lot.

So I think it's it's worthwhile to suck it up and just take the camera because otherwise, why did you buy it, right?

Yeah, that's true.

The English pot audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Any compact, non-SLR camera, with non-interchangeable lenses, using automatic settings and simplified controls. Generally desired by novices and casual users.

Point and shoot.

Try to persuade someone to buy, do, or eat something.

Interest someone in.

A transparent optical device used to converge or diverge transmitted light and to form images.

Lens.

A camera lens filter used to control the plane of polarization of light entering the lens.

Polarizing filter.

Simple and appropriate to an inexperienced person.

Entry level.

Let's try that faster.

Simple and appropriate to an inexperienced person.

Entry level.

A camera lens filter used to control the plane of polarization of light entering the lens.

Polarizing filter.

Any compact, non-SLR camera, with non-interchangeable lenses, using automatic settings and simplified controls. Generally desired by novices and casual users.

Point and shoot.

A transparent optical device used to converge or diverge transmitted light and to form images.

Lens.

Try to persuade someone to buy, do, or eat something.

Interest someone in.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Point and shoot.

A point and shoot camera is also called a compact camera because it is small and the lens can be compacted into the body of the camera.

Point and shoot.

A disposable camera is the cheapest point and shoot camera.

Point and shoot.

A fully automated camcorder can also be called point and shoot.

Lens.

Macro lenses are used for close-up photography.

Lens.

Convex lenses are used to converge light behind the lens, while concave lenses are used to diverge light behind the lens.

Lens.

Photographic lenses can be compound lenses, which means that they are made of a combination of convex and concave lenses and other optical devices.

Interest someone in.

Can I interest you in a drink?

Interest someone in.

While you're waiting, can I interest you in a tour of the facilities?

Interest someone in.

Can I interest you in buying a new car?

Polarizing filter.

Polarizing filters are also called polarizers.

Polarizing filter.

Linear polarizing filters are made for manual focus cameras, while circular polarizing filters are made for autofocus cameras.

Polarizing filter.

Polarized sunglasses have a coating on their lenses, which acts as a polarizing filter to cut out the glare of the sun from reflective surfaces.

Entry level.

She's offering him an entry-level job.

Entry level.

This new entry-level camera has received glowing reviews.

Entry level.

This is an entry-level class.