Making the Jump to Digital SLR Photography

Factors to Consider When Looking for a Digital SLR Camera

by Rajendra Varma

Digital SLR cameras are a must for anyone serious about their digital photography. Although amateur photographers may find all the features of a digital SLR camera overwhelming, for those with more experience in digital photography, making the jump to a digital SLR camera will be natural. Not only do digital SLR cameras offer better quality digital photographs, but the creative flexibility they provide is unmatched by other digital cameras.

A compact digital camera may be much more convenient to carry and produce good digital photographs, it simply cannot match the possibilities offered by a digital SLR camera. The bulkier digital SLR cameras will be harder to carry around, but their size is required to hold the more advanced hardware they carry. Bigger image sensors mean cleaner image data processing.

Interchangeable lens allow a lot more possibilities and better optical quality than a compact digital camera's miniature lens.

Important Digital SLR Camera Features

There are a number of important features to consider before buying a digital SLR camera.

Resolution

Resolution is even less of a problem today in digital SLR cameras than it is in compact digital cameras. The latest digital SLR cameras have upwards of 10 megapixels resolution, which is good enough for extremely large prints. A 10 megapixels digital photograph can be printed into a good quality 20x30 print. Therefore, digital SLR camera resolution is not really a big factor.

Lens

Normally, when you purchase a digital SLR camera, it will come with a starter lens that is a multi-purpose zoom lens covering a wide range of focal lengths from wide angle to telephoto. Although the starter lens, or kit lens, will produce digital photographs, it will not fulfill the digital camera's potential. So if you do take your digital photography seriously enough to purchase a digital SLR camera, then you should also think about purchasing a good lens. Depending on your personal preferences, you could look into wide-angle lenses if you are into landscape photography, or a telephoto lens if you want to take wildlife or sports photography.

Image Stabilization

Modern digital SLR cameras have image stabilization to compensate for camera movement. Image stabilization will be especially important in low-light situations or high-zoom photos. Each digital SLR camera manufacturer have their own solutions to image stabilization.

Shutter Speed and ISO setting

Digital SLR cameras usually have a wider range of shutter speeds and ISO settings available than their compact digital camera counterparts. Nevertheless, there is a variety of digital SLR cameras out there that offer different capabilities, and not all will offer the same settings. If you anticipate shooting very fast actions shots, it is a good idea to look for fast shutter speeds.

Flash

Even though digital SLR cameras will normally have built-in flash, this may not be sufficient if you would like to do night photography or portrait photography, for example. You will want an external flash to achieve optimal lighting conditions for your digital photography.

Burst Mode

Burst mode allow you to shoot multiple shots in a short period of time, and will be important in fast action situations. The better digital SLR cameras will shot upwards of 5 frames per second.

Ergonomics

This includes camera design and appearance, but also ease-of-use in terms of menu settings and digital photo previewing. Button placements and other factors will determine whether you will learn to use the digital SLR camera naturally.

Other factors

The above are just some of the basic features to look at when making the jump to digital photography. Depending on how experienced a digital photographer you are, you may look at other factors such as focusing capabilities, image processing, white balance, and shooting modes.

It is important to understand that the camera is the most important part of your photography, and therefore it is advisable to invest in a good digital SLR camera if you are serious about digital photography and the quality of your photos.