Digital SLR Cameras

Things used to be so much simpler in the classy world of film photography. That for most of us, we had point-and-shoot cameras which were perfect for taking group photos and holiday happy snaps. Simply Just pop in your film, zoom, focus, shoot and then develop. For those who took their photography more seriously, we had SLRs which had all the manner of manual controls, a bevy of different lens and accessories but also greater cost and weight, not to mention the joys of the darkroom. Today, in the digital age, photography is everywhere; it’s in our mobile phones and in our camcorders just to name a few. With entry level digital SLRs retailing at an affordable cost, more and more people are choosing to take the leap.

One of the most common concerns is "which is the best digital camera out there?" While there are many cameras that impress us (and just as many that disappoint us), there is no such definitive "best". As some people would put; “It is not the equipment, but the person behind it.”

That said, there's no harm in holding a good piece of hardware, so here are few reasons you should consider making a right choice while going for SLR cameras.

One of the biggest differences between SLRs and the traditional compact shooters is the size of the image sensor used. You probably won't see it unless you decide to dismantle your digicams, but the sensor in consumer cameras is typically of smaller size, while that in a SLR is many times larger. A large sensor translates to better image quality especially in terms of noise and dynamic range. Putting that into the perspective, a 6-megapixel SLR would likely produce better pictures than a 10-megapixel consumer compact digicam.

Unlike the regular snapshot cameras, SLRs have a wealth of controls that scream "use me". The standard ones comprises aperture, shutter-priority modes and full manual, which allow you to determine the size of both the aperture and shutter speed concurrently for more creative shooting. Other features include adjustment of tone curves, sharpness, contrast, custom white balance, in-camera editing and flash synchronization, to name a few.
Shots from SLRs exhibit less noise partly due to the larger image sensor which, on its own, is already a huge advantage over the compact snapshots. a picture taken at ISO 400 on a SLR can rival ISO 800 or even ISO 1,600 on a consumer camera.

Most point-and-shoots take some time to power up and it can vary from 1 second to slightly over 2 at worse. So what? You missed a shot, that's what. If you had your hands on a SLR earlier, you'd appreciate the near instant startup time, usually faster than you can time with a stopwatch. Shutter lag, which is the delay from the time you hit the shutter till the image is captured, is also practically non-existent in a SLR. And yet, we haven't gone into speedier auto focusing speeds and burst modes.

buying a SLR is akin to buying into a family of camera accessories and these can range from external flash units to battery grips to strobes, lenses, filters, etc. The list can go on, but the point to make here is that SLRs are getting more affordable.