A DSLR is a digital camera, but not just any ol’ digicam. A DSLR is a serious photo-taking tool that differs from point & shoot digital cameras in a variety of ways. If digital photography has begun to act as a hobby, if you’ve been hanging around Flickr, or if you’ve just spoken to a few photographers, you’ve probably heard a bit of praise for DSLR cameras. So just what is a DSLR, and what kind of features does it offer?
DSLR is all About the Viewfinder
Fig. 1 - The viewfinder and lens of a P&S camera as two separate elements.
Part of photography is composition — the placement of your subject in the photo. You want to see what the camera sees in order to get your composition just right, and that can’t be done by looking through the viewfinder of most point & shoot digital cameras. Take a look at figure 1, and observe how the viewfinder and the camera lens are two completely different elements. The viewfinder peeks out just above the camera’s lens, and so it’s close, but not quite the same image that the camera sees.
Most people I know don’t even use the viewfinder on a P&S digital camera. Instead, they compose their shots using the LCD. The LCD is an accurate representation of what the camera sees through the lens, but the image displayed is a very low-quality, compressed picture. The poor quality of the picture on the LCD, combined with the fact that you’re probably holding the camera way out in front of you, makes it difficult to get a steady, well-composed shot.
SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex, and the D is for digital. DSLR cameras use a system of mirrors to reflect light through the camera lens, up to the viewfinder, and then onto the camera’s photographic sensor. When you look through the viewfinder of a DSLR, you and your camera are both seeing the same thing. Through the viewfinder of a DSLR, you can accurately focus and compose the shot as you’d like it.
There is one technicality here, which I’ll mention briefly. Inexpensive, consumer-level DSLR cameras have a crop factor. The sensor in these cameras is smaller than 35mm film, and so the field of view seen in the end result does not exactly match what you would traditionally expect from the focal length you used. Instead, you must multiply the focal length by the camera’s field of view crop factor. For example, a Canon EOS 400D has a crop factor of 1.6, so a photo taken through a 100mm lens will actually correspond to 160mm (100mm x 1.6). Many professional models are referred to as “full frame” cameras, and do not have a crop factor. Whether or not full frame or cropped sensors are better suited for digital photography is currently under debate.
DSLR is all about Manual Controls
When you take the plunge into the DSLR world, you should be ready to step away from the comfort of automatic and preset camera modes. Point & Shoot cameras are great for casual photography because they’re pre-programmed to handle common situations such as portraits, landscapes and action shots.
While automatic and preset modes are convenient, you’ll find yourself desiring more control over your photography as you become more serious about the craft. Much like a car with a manual transmission, a DSLR offers the photographer manual control over individual camera settings, such as aperture, shutter speed, light sensitivity, white balance, and more. A photographer possessing an understanding of these tools can take the same picture a dozen different ways. By using these tools to your advantage, you can add depth, feeling and emotion to your photographs.
Photography is all about the Lens
Using the right lens to capture a scene affects your photograph in the same manner that your choice of camera settings does. Point & Shoot cameras have one lens that’s intended to serve its purpose in as many different environments as possible — it’s a jack of all trades, but a master of none. The lens on a DSLR can be detached, and the camera body sports a lens mount that can hold onto many different types of lenses. A DSLR allows you to choose the right lens for the right situation — there are portrait lenses, zoom lenses, telephoto lenses, wide angle lenses, and more.
Should You Buy a DSLR?
If you’re serious about photography, have an understanding of the craft and an eye for light, and have been contemplating this sort of upgrade for a while, then yes, I think a DSLR would be a good idea. You should understand that an expensive camera will not make you a better photographer, but a good photographer will find it much easier to express his creativity through a quality instrument.
I made the jump to a DSLR fairly recently, so take a look at my Flickr photostream if you’re feeling curious. For what it’s worth, I chose the affordable Canon Digital Rebel XTi.
