Should You Buy A Digital SLR Camera? What Are The Benefits Of DSLR Cameras?

Introduction

Prices of digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras have tumbled over the past 3 years. It is now possible to pick up a decent starter kit (body and lens combinations) at prices that are affordable for more people than ever before.

However, today's modern point and shoot digital cameras can do most of the things that SLR cameras are characteristically strong at, such as controlling shutter speed and aperture. This is true especially with some of the higher-end point and shoot cameras, many of which even have a higher mega pixel count than the average digital SLR!

So what exactly are the benefits of digital SLR cameras over point and shoot cameras? Is it worthwhile for the average photo-hobbyist to invest in a digital SLR camera?

There are 3 important benefits of digital SLR cameras over point and shoot cameras.

1) Ease of using advanced features

Point and shoot cameras are designed and optimised for small size, convenience and portability. To access advanced features such as shutter speed, aperture and ISO speed, users typically have to run through several layers of menu screens.

Digital SLR cameras, however, are physically bigger than point and shoot cameras. This means that there is space for buttons and dials which can provide instant access to these advanced features.

Having these controls handy and easily reachable on the body of the camera can make a real difference when you want to capture the perfect shot in a hurry!

2) Ability to change lenses

The lens on a point and shoot camera is fixed, which means that the user is limited in the range of focus that can be achieved.

With a true SLR camera, users can change the lens to suit the intended shot. For example, the user can select from wide-angle lenses, zoom (telephoto) lenses and macro lenses.

Beware - lenses can be much more expensive than the camera body, so the cost of a photography hobby can quickly escalate!

3) Shallow depth of field

Have you seen photos where the object of interest (subject) is in sharp focus, while the background is blurred? This is called the bokeh effect. Not only does this contrast in focus add to the artistic appeal of the photo, but is also helps frame the shot as it highlights the subject and blurs the distracting background imagery.

To achieve such shots, photographers need cameras with large sensors and lenses with large apertures.

Point and shoot cameras have small sensors and lenses with small apertures. Therefore it is difficult to achieve this effect with a point and shoot camera. However, digital SLR cameras are ideally suited for this purpose, as they have large sensors and lenses with large apertures.

Conclusion

The features included in modern point and shoot cameras have substantially narrowed the performance gap between point and shoot cameras and digital SLR cameras.

However, SLR cameras still retain three important benefits over point and shoot cameras. If these benefits are important to you, a digital SLR camera may well be on your shopping list in the near future!

Mandar Marathe is an amateur photographer. You can see some of Mandar's photos at Flickr.com or at his online photo album.