Digital SLRs

Digital cameras have seem many changes over the last 18 months with perhaps one of the biggest being the decrease in price of digital SLR cameras. This has seen them become more affordable and they are now within reach of almost anybody who enjoys photography as a hobby.

Digital SLR cameras can now be found from as little as £350 and it is usually possible to purchase at least one lens as part of the deal. This can be a good way to save some money on a lens. These cameras usually have between eight and twelve megapixels.

Lenses are an extremely important feature but it can be easy to fall into the trap where having bought an expensive camera with a great set of features, that any old lens will do. Lens quality is an important factor if you are looking for impressive quality images. Therefore, budgeting for the best quality lenses you can afford in addition to the cost of the camera body itself.

One of the main advantages of digital SLR cameras is their flexibility. With such an array of lenses to choose from, you can choose the right camera for whatever photograph you wish to take. There is also a wide range of accessories available which can further enhance these cameras capabilities.

Lens choice is continually increasing and there are now a range of lenses that are specifically designed to match smaller sensors that can be found with digital SLR cameras. If you want to take wide angle shots then a wide angle lens made specifically for digital SLRs will probably make a wise investment.

Another big advantage of going down the digital SLR route is that it helps to protect your overall investment. If you buy a number of lenses and then decide to upgrade the camera itself then your lenses should still work with your next camera provided it is made by the same manufacturer.

Advanced Digital Cameras

The advanced digital camera range as I know is much smaller than it was three or four years ago. This is probably because of the way the price of digital SLR cameras has crashed over the past few years. Even so there is still a demand for this type of digital camera from people who would like a more convenient and therefore more portable advanced digital camera than the larger and bulkier digital SLR cameras.

This type of camera is a cross between High Specification, Super Zoom and Digital SLR cameras. They usually have around eight megapixels and zoom lenses between 4x and 10x. Like digital SLR cameras, you may find control dials that give you fast access to key controls rather than a array of buttons on the back of the camera. Many also offer custom modes where you can save your favourite settings.

Among the more advanced features that can be found are long exposures, custom white balance, matrix, spot and centre weighted metering, continuous shooting, best shot selectors and time lapse movies. Other features can include bracketing, noise reduction and options to adjust sharpness, contrast and saturation.

One of the main differences I have found between these digital cameras and the cheaper Super Zoom style models is build quality. These cameras tend to be far sturdier and a better feel in the hand. They also manage to avoid the problems of purple fringing when the zoom is fully extended.

These types of camera are becoming harder to come by and pricing has fallen since they were first introduced. However, if you see photography as a hobby then it may be a good idea to look at the latest offerings from entry level digital SLR cameras. I expect this type of digital camera to remain with us, but the flow of new models is much reduced from its peak around four years ago.

Buying Digital SLR cameras

In a previous article I talked about the benefits of buying an SLR camera over a compact camera. In this article I am going to discuss the Digital SLR camera that might be suitable for your requirements.

If you look at the specifications of a number of digital SLR cameras you will find a lot of features that are common to all of them. Therefore whichever camera you buy will have all the features most hobbyist photographers need such as manual exposure controls and manual focusing. Therefore you will need to think carefully before leaping in and buying one of the more expensive cameras. You will need to ask yourself if you really need the extras that the more expensive models offer.

Perhaps it is easiest if we split the range of digital SLR cameras into three simple areas. These are cameras for hobbyists, professionals or serious hobbyists or professionals with special requirements.

As you step up through the levels one of the first things you will notice is an increase in the build quality. You are also likely to see improvements in burst shooting speeds. At the highest level you will find speeds of ten frames per second. This is a big advantage to the professional sports or wildlife photographer. You are also likely to find the more you pay the better the camera is as you tests its limits. For example as you pay progressively more for a digital SLR you would expect noise to be less of a problem.

Even if you are buying an SLR camera with a lower price tag it is worth considering your future options. Once you buy a particular brand of SLR it can be very expensive to change brands later on after you have invested in a range of lenses and other accessories. This is an area where Canon and Nikon have an advantage over other brands as they offer a greater choice of more advanced models.

For an entry level digital SLR you are likely to find yourself paying between £350 and £800 for a camera body. That is a fair price difference and you need to sit down and consider whether or not the extra cost can be justified. These prices are for the camera body alone. At the cheaper end of the market you with find models such as the Canon EOS 400D, Nikon D40x and the Sony A100. More expensive bodies, but staying below the £800 mark are the Canon EOS 30D, the Nikon D80 and the Pentax K10D.

Moving up a step you will find models such as the Canon EOS 5D, Nikon D200 and the Fuji S5 Pro. These cameras are used by professional photographers whose needs are perhaps not quite as demanding as those of sports and wildlife photographers. This means that they can have slower burst modes and are not quite as rugged in their construction. I am aware of many wedding photographers for example who use SLR cameras in this bracket.

A further step up brings us to the top of the range models. Currently these include the Canon EOS 1D MkIII and the Nikon D2Xs. These cameras are likely to appeal to professional photographers searching for the ultimate quality, where speed of shot is very important and those working in environments where the camera could take the odd knock here and there.

The next article in this series will start to look at what you need to consider when buying a lens.

Does an SLR Camera Produce Better Photos?

I get a number of requests asking what type of digital camera is best for someone who is either looking to make a career out of photography or is planning to undertake a photography course.

The answer is an SLR camera. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that the picture quality produced by an SLR camera is far better than that produced by a smaller compact model. The second is that an SLR camera forms the hub of a camera system that can be built up over a period of years as requirements change and the money required to buy a new piece of kit becomes available.

In this article I will look at why an SLR offers better quality than a typical compact, point and shoot camera. I will use a later post to talk about building a camera system.

In the digital world one of the main reasons why an SLR better than a compact model is down to the size of the camera’s sensor. The sensor is the area inside the camera where the image is captured and recorded. The sensor inside and SLR is much larger then you will find in a smaller compact camera. This means that the pixels can be much larger in size. The size of each pixel is important. The larger the pixel the more detail that it can hold. More detail equals better quality.

The second reason for better quality photos with an SLR camera is that the lenses you can buy are simply better than those found on smaller cameras. It is easier to build a good quality large lens than it is to build a good quality very small lens. A good quality lens will also cost at least as much and quite often considerably more than a small compact camera. This gives you an idea of the extra quality that a manufacturer can afford to build in.

There are other reasons why SLRs are better cameras as well. Internal components such as focusing and metering systems tend to be of a higher quality. The poor performance of smaller cameras when higher ISO used is well documented in my reviews. With an SLR camera you can expect much better lower light results. Another plus point with an SLR is that shutter lag is much less of a problem.

You will also find a full set of manual exposure controls inside an SLR camera. These do not affect the picture quality in the same way a sharp lens or larger pixel size will, but by manually setting the shutter speed or aperture size you will change the way the photograph will look. Likewise manual focusing is very handy to have too.

So there is no doubt in my mind that if you see yourself as a serious photographer the SLR route is the one to go down.

Next I will run through building your camera system.