What’s the difference between a regular digital camera and a SLR digital camera?
Could you let me know what are the benefits of purchasing a SLR digital camera over a regular digital camera? I’m thinking of getting one for my husband for Christmas.
I am a professional photographer, and upon seeing my pictures, a friend of mine said “Wow, I want the same camera as you!” and ran out and bought a DSLR system with many expensive lenses. He didn’t bother to learn details like aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, ISO, color spaces, etc. Now he often comes sobbing to me “Why are my pictures so blurry? Why is the color no good? Is my camera broken?” No, it wasn’t broken, he just wasn’t using it properly. For him, an automatic digicam would have given better results. (On the other hand, yet another friend of mine bought a modest DSLR with a couple relatively inexpensive lenses, and his pictures are good, because he understands the basics and practices a lot.)
If your husband doesn’t know much about the technical details of photography, and just wants to aim the camera and press a button and get good pictures most of the time, then a regular digicam is probably a better bet.
DSLRs give you much more control over your photography, but also require more attention to settings and when/how to adjust them. Basically, if you are an expert user (or trying to become one), using a DSLR can mean taking better pictures. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, a fully-automatic digicam may give you better results.
DSLRs main advantages are when shooting fast moving scenes like sports or kids, shooting in low-light, or shooting things that are very very close [macro], very wide [landscapes], or very far away [super telephoto). If you use it a lot, you will soon want to upgrade many things such as lenses, a tripod, flash, filters, batteries, memory cards, etc., which can quickly add up to a lot of money. The lenses you buy will work with other DSLRs of the same brand, but not with other makers’ cameras, so you will want to stick with one brand long term. It’s almost like buying a house: you are making a long-term investment in one system, so you need to decide carefully before you start throwing money around.
Anatomy of a Digital SLR Camera
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