It's not hard to find the best digital SLR camera for your needs.. Many serious photographers, both amateur and professional, have avoided digital photography because consumer digital cameras lacked the features and resolution they demanded. Digital SLR cameras meet advanced photography needs with interchangeable lenses, manual settings and higher resolutions that deliver control and professional results.
DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. A Digital SLR camera operates in much the same way as a 35mm camera, except it saves the image to a flash memory card or internal memory instead of film. Digital SLR cameras use an intricate system of mirrors and a prism, so what you see in your viewfinder is exactly what the camera will shoot.
Digital SLR Cameras Catch up
When you work with a digital SLR camera, you're sacrificing darkroom processing and the higher resolution of film for the convenience of instant image analysis and digital editing. Images from a digital SLR camera are suitable for Web imaging, newspapers and amateur photographers, although some jobs that demand fine detail, such as advertising and magazine images, are still better left to film.
The days of smaller image sizes from a digital SLR camera are gone. As the price of digital chips has dropped, a majority of digital SLR cameras increased the image size to be the same as a 35mm negative. Look for a full-frame digital SLR camera to make sure you're getting image sensors that are the same size as a standard 35mm frame.
You'll pay a bit of a premium for a full-frame digital SLR camera, but you'll get higher-resolution images and better performance from lenses built to take full-frame images. Unless you've already got reduced-frame digital SLR camera lenses, it's best to spend more for the quality of a full-frame camera. If you've been using a reduced-frame digital SLR camera, the choice is harder, because reduced-frame lenses won't work at all on a full-frame camera, so you'll need to get a new set of lenses as well.
Image Resolution
Resolution is measured in megapixels with digital SLR cameras, but they're not as critical as they are with digital point-and-shoot cameras. Digital SLR camera image sensors are much larger than their point-and-shoot counterparts, sometimes 25 times larger, and they work at faster ISO levels, which produce images with less grain and digital noise. A digital SLR camera with 6MPs will produce higher-quality images than a point-and-shoot with the same number of MPs. Most digital SLR cameras offer 8 to 10 MPs, which will create a clear 20x30 printed image. If you need images for larger formats, like bus wraps and billboards, look for a digital SLR camera with more megapixels. Models up to 13MP are available.
The other part of resolution is the file format. A typical point-and-shoot digital camera stores images in the lossy JPEG format, which compresses information so that more images can be stored in memory. JPEGs are fine for Web images and amateur photographers, but they lack the resolution needed by professionals.
The solution is a digital SLR camera that supports the RAW format, which doesn't compress the images. In exchange for the higher resolution, the file sizes are much larger, so fewer RAW images than JPEGs will fit in the memory of a digital SLR camera. You'll also need photo-editing software and a good bit of RAM on your PC to finish the images for printing or distribution. A dual-format digital SLR camera supports both RAW and JPEG files, allowing you to get the most from memory and take higher-resolution images only when you need them.
Changing Lenses
One of the best reasons to invest in a digital SLR camera is the availability of interchangeable lenses. Point-and-shoot digital cameras have a single fixed lens with a limited zoom. A digital SLR camera works with a full range of lenses, from the 3.4mm wide angle to the 500mm telephoto. The real power of photography comes not from the megapixels but the optical options that various lenses offer. Your choice of a digital SLR camera determines the brand of lenses you can use, so make sure you're comfortable with the quality of the lenses available. Some digital SLR cameras are sold as body only, which means the lens is extra. Check to see if a lens is included before you buy.
Any digital SLR camera will give you full manual control from focus to shutter speed to aperture. Higher-end digital SLR cameras allow even greater manual control, including variable ISO speeds and selective focus that increases the depth of field. Some digital SLR cameras even allow you to create up to 30 custom profiles so that you can have your settings for daylight, dusk or rain available at the push of a button.
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