You are looking to buy a new camera, and as you are searching
through your options, the term "digital SLR" keeps coming up. You may
notice these cameras tend to be more expensive than regular compact
digital cameras, but what is a digital SLR camera, and is it worth its
higher price?
How Does the Digital SLR Camera Work?
The
first thing we need to know if we are going to answer the question,
"What is a digital SLR camera?" is what the term 'SLR' literally means.
SLR is an acronym that stands for "Single Lens Reflex." These cameras
use a reflex mirror system to reflect the image that will be captured
into the camera's optical viewfinder.
When you take a photo with a
digital SLR camera, light passes through the lens and onto a mirror
that reflects this light through a focusing screen to a pentaprism,
which is a block of glass that reflects the image in such a way that you
can see it through the viewfinder in the correct orientation. When you
press the button to take a picture, the mirror flips up and the shutter
opens to expose a digital sensor to the light.
SLR Cameras and Speed
So
what are a digital SLR camera's advantages over a compact digital
camera? One of the main advantages is that the optical viewfinder shows
the image exactly as the camera will capture it, without the lag time
generally associated with LCD viewing screens. This is an especially
important feature if you are taking action in which the object you
intend to capture is constantly moving, such as a sports player or an
animal in the wild.
Digital SLR cameras are also faster than
compact cameras because they have a manual shutter. Compact cameras do
use a shutter to take photos, but they electronically activate a sensor
every time you take a picture. This creates a lag of a few seconds
between the time you press the button and the time your camera actually
captures the photo. The shutter on a SLR camera is instantaneous,
allowing you to capture the exact moment you intended.
SLR Cameras and Light
Another
advantage of SLR's is that they take better photos in low-light
situations than compact cameras do. When you take a picture in a
low-light setting without using your flash, the shutter of your camera
automatically stays open longer to allow the sensor to gather more
light. Because the shutter is open longer, however, pictures often turn
out blurry if the subject moves at all or if you are holding the camera
in your hand.
SLR cameras have a feature called ISO that makes the
digital sensor more sensitive to light so the shutter does not have to
stay open as long. The higher the ISO number, the faster the sensor can
absorb light. Although high ISOs also tend to produce somewhat grainy
pictures. SLR cameras are fairly good at filtering out this digital
"noise" so that with a good camera you will probably not see this grainy
quality until you get to an ISO setting above 800.
Lenses
SLR
cameras also allow you to change lenses on your camera depending on
what you are taking a picture of. A landscape photo should use a
different lens than a close-up picture of a flower or insect, and the
SLR allows you the flexibility to change lenses for these different
situations. The large lenses on SLR's also make them much heavier and
larger than a compact digital camera, however, so if you are looking for
a camera that will fit in your pocket, an SLR is probably not the right
camera for you.
So is the digital SLR camera something that is
worth shelling out hundreds of dollars for? Well, it depends on what you
need your camera to take pictures of. If you take a lot of action shots
or need to take photos in low-light settings, it might be worth it to
spend the extra money. Now that we have answered the question, "What is a
digital SLR camera?" it is really up to you to decide if this kind of
camera is for you or if a regular compact digital camera will serve your
needs just as well.
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