I am a complete digital camera novice, so when I read a response to another post on my blog mentioning “digital SLR,” I had to do a big long search to find out what that is! Now, thanks to Wikipedia, I know that digital SLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera. My understanding of this is that digital SLRs use a mirror to direct light upwards where it bounces off of a pentaprism to the photographer’s eye in the viewfinder. When the photograph is actually taken, the mirror goes up and the shutter opens so that the light is projected onto the image sensor (Wikipedia).
That is a major difference between regular point and shoot digital cameras and digital single-lens reflex cameras. While the light is only reflected on the image sensor when the picture is taken with a digital SLR, the light is always reflected on the sensor when the picture is taken with a point and shoot digital camera. This is the reason why people can see the picture on an LCD screen when using a point and shoot, and why they cannot and must look through the viewfinder when using a digital SLR. These are two links to websites with more information about digital single-lens reflex cameras.
3 comments:
Thanks for clearing that up. Frankly I didn't know that SLR digital cameras existed.
Digital SLR's haven't been around all that long (that's probably why you didn't know they existed, Jennifer). They're supposed to take much better pictures, and you can alter the way it takes pictures, just as a regular SLR can. Also, you can get them with greater megapixel photo-taking capabilities than point and shoots, so that's been a big selling point. That said, it seems that in the past 2 years, some of the point and shoots have progressed to as many megapixels as my DSLR is. Secondly, I've read that once you get above a certain number of megapixels, the differences in photograph quality are negligible. Perhaps you haven't heard of Digital SLR's because they are no longer necessary...
Now, that's about the extent of what I know about that!
Brooke
I once took a digital photography class during under grad studies and the best piece of information I came away learning was..."If something is stuck or not working, DON'T JAM IT!" And that has been the most helpful little tidbit.
Personally, I've always opted to own digital cameras that offer me manual options, since it allows me for more control. Not saying that the camera doesn't always know better, sometimes it does. But I still like the creative control.
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