Preflash

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A flash produced in advance of the main flash when taking a picture.

    "First, a preflash is fired to analyze exposure. Then the flash fires during the actual exposure, creating the image. During the preflash, the camera's Evaluative metering system measures the light reflected back from the subject."

Example

More examples

"First, a preflash is fired to analyze exposure. Then the flash fires during the actual exposure, creating the image. During the preflash, the camera's Evaluative metering system measures the light reflected back from the subject."

Etymology

From pre- + flash.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.