Chapter 1

The Digital SLR Difference

In This Chapter

Discovering why digital SLRs are a big deal

Exploring dSLR advantages

Looking at downsides? What downsides?

Now that you can buy a fully featured digital SLR (or dSLR) for five Benjamins or less, virtually everyone (including your grandmother) probably knows that SLR stands for single lens reflex. However, your Nana — or you, for that matter — might not know precisely what single lens reflex means. SLR is a camera (either film or digital) that uses a marvelous system of mirrors or prisms to provide bright, clear optical viewing of the image that you’re about to take — through the same lens that the camera uses to take the picture. The very latest dSLRs offer an even more interesting option: the capability to bypass the optical viewfinder and preview your image right on the LCD (liquid crystal display) on the back of the camera (which also uses the same lens that the camera uses to take the picture).

But the key thing to know about dSLRs is that they’re very cool tools that you can use to take photos electronically.

Welcome to the chapter that tells you exactly how smart you were when you decided to upgrade from whatever you were using previously to a digital single lens reflex camera. In this chapter, you find out how a digital SLR transforms the way you take and make pictures, why you may find the strengths of the dSLR important, and how even the very few downsides of previous digital SLRs have been vanquished in recent years. Now that digital SLRs have become a big deal, you can get in on the action.

In this chapter, I compare digital SLRs, for the most part, with point-and-shoot cameras, and explain the advantages of the dSLR versus P&S models. From time to time, I also mention a newer type of camera, the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (ILC), which is very dSLR-like. But, for the most part, the comparisons are between digital SLRs and amateur cameras with fixed lenses, including point-and-shoot cameras and superzoom/electronic viewfinder models.

dSLR: dNext Great Digital Camera

Digital SLRs are now available to suit every budget. They range from surprisingly capable entry-level models that barely nudge above the $500 price point, to robust intermediate models built for avid amateurs with $1,000 to spend, on up to semipro and pro models for $2,000 and up. So, almost anyone who wants more picture-taking flexibility than a smartphone or point-and-click camera provides can afford to make the jump to a digital SLR. If you already have, you’ve discovered that the dSLR lets you take pictures the way they’re meant to be taken.

It’s easy to see why enthusiast photographers interested in taking professional-looking photos embrace these features of a digital SLR:

• You can view a big, bright image that represents (almost) exactly what you see in the final picture. No peering through a tiny window at a miniature version of your subject with a tiny viewfinder window, or squinting at the LCD of your cell phone or point-and-shoot camera. Digital SLRs have big and bright viewfinders that show virtually the entire image, so you don’t have to wonder whether you chopped off the top of someone’s head. Using the optical viewfinder, which comes as standard equipment on every dSLR, means that you don’t have to squint to compose your image at arm’s length on an LCD (liquid crystal display) viewfinder that washes out in bright sunlight. However, if lighting conditions permit, all newer digital SLRs also enable you to preview your picture on the back-panel LCD using Live View (just like a point-and-shoot camera), giving you the best of both viewing worlds.
• A dSLR responds to an itchy trigger finger almost instantly. Forget about pressing the shutter release and then waiting an agonizing moment before the camera decides to snap the shot. Although newer point-and-shoot cameras are more responsive than older versions, few can match the capability of dSLRs to crank out shots as fast as you can press the button. Even fewer point-and-shoot cameras are capable of the 4-to-11 frames-per-second continuous shooting rates available with some of the digital SLRs aimed at more advanced photographers.
• You have the freedom to switch among lenses. Yes, there are some non-dSLR cameras (so-called mirrorless models) that are dSLR-like in many ways, and can use interchangeable lenses. But none of them can match the selection of optics available for the typical dSLR camera, even when you use an adapter that allows fitting lenses from other camera models. You can switch among an all-purpose zoom lens, a superwide-angle lens, an extra-long telephoto lens, a close-up lens, or other specialized optics quicker than you can say 170–500mm F/5–6.3 APO Aspherical AutoFocus Telephoto Zoomexpialidocious. (Best of all, you don’t even have to know what that tongue twister of a name means!)

  Just be prepared to succumb to lens lust, a strange malady that strikes all owners of dSLRs sooner or later. Before you know it, you find yourself convinced that you must have optical goodies, such as the lens shown in Figure 1-1 — a telephoto lens that’s absolutely essential (you think) for taking photos of wildlife from enough of a distance to avoid scaring away the timid creatures.

• If you’re a movie nut, you can shoot the best movies of your life. The latest dSLRs are truly all-in-one cameras, capable of capturing razor-sharp stills and either 720p or 1080p high-definition movies with equal aplomb. They produce better-looking movies than most point-and-shoot cameras, and even exceed the capabilities and quality of the average dedicated camcorder, too. There’s an old saying that “The best camera is the one you have with you.” It’s equally true that the best movie camera is the one you’re already holding in your hands when a video opportunity pops up unexpectedly.

Figure 1-1: Playing with lenses, lenses, and more lenses is one of the inevitable joys of working with a dSLR.

If you’re ready to say sayonara to film, adiós to poorly exposed and poorly composed pictures, and auf Wiedersehen to cameras that have sluggardly performance, it’s time to get started.

The sections that follow (as well as other chapters in this part) introduce you to the technical advantages of the digital SLR and how you can use the dSLR features to their fullest. When you’re ready to expand your photographic horizons even further, Parts II, III, and IV help you master the basics of digital photography, go beyond the basics to conquer the mysteries of photo arenas (such as action, flash, and portrait photography), and then discover how you can fine-tune your images, organizing them for sharing and printing.

Resolution: Peak or plateau?

Only a few years ago, it was common to buy a digital camera based only on the number of pixels — measured in millions of pixels or megapixels — because a camera with 24 gazillion pixels obviously must be superior to one with only 18.14159625 gazillion pixels, right? Then photographers discovered that one vendor’s 18MP camera produced much better images than another vendor’s 24MP camera, especially in terms of image-quality characteristics unrelated to resolution (say, visual noise or color accuracy).

In recent years, digital SLRs have continued to boast more and more pixels, but those other image qualities have gained equal stature in terms of importance. Photographers are looking at the overall picture, in other words. As I write this, resolution seems to be averaging around 21–24 megapixels, with 16–18MP at the low end for entry-level and intermediate models, and 21–24MP for more advanced cameras. Because additional resolution isn’t as important as reduced visual noise and other image quality factors, I expect resolution to plateau or peak at the current high of about 36MP during the life of this book.

Full frame: Is it for you?

So-called full-frame cameras have become more affordable, with some models available for less than $2,000. Equipped with sensors the same size as a 35mm film frame — 24 x 36mm — these cameras enjoy the double benefit of offering “true” (non-cropped) fields of view and improved low-light/visual noise characteristics thanks to their larger, light-hungry pixels. (You find out more about lens cropping in Chapter 2.) Wide-angle lenses of a given focal length have a wider field of view when mounted on a full-frame camera, and conversely, longer lenses don’t have the same “cropped” telephoto “reach” as they do on a camera with a smaller sensor. Full-frame cameras are generally more expensive, larger, and may force you to buy a whole new complement of lenses that can bathe their larger sensors with light. So, whether one of these models is for you depends on what features you need and how much you want to pay for them. I explain the advantages and disadvantages of full-frame cameras in more detail in Chapter...