With the advancement of technology and slashing prices of DSLRs these days many of you guys ask or at least have this question before upgrading from Point-n-Shoot camera to a DSLR. I get a lot of such queries from my friends and relatives, in fact I had this same question when I upgraded my gears to DSLR.
In this post I’ll try to cover all the aspects of ones needs to upgrade from Point-n-Shoot Camera to DSLR. I’ll compare the two and leave upon you to make the final decision. I’ll also provide links to various websites where you can gather more resources for your research.
In the first part I would like to brief out the strengths and weaknesses of a Point-n-Shoot Cameras and in the similar manner I’ll write about the DSLRs in concluding part.
Point-n-Shoot Characteristics
Point-and-shoot digital camera is defined by its in built lens which never separates from its body. The LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) always gets a continuous electronic version of the image. The image that the photographer sees through the viewfinder of a point-n-shoot camera is not the same image that passes through the primary lens of the camera. Rather, the image in the viewfinder passes through a separate lens. These cameras have focus-free lenses, with fixed apertures. These cameras also have a mode dial which enables you to easily select preprogrammed settings based on the scene (indoor, outdoor, day, night, portrait, landscape, macro, sports, etc.) without knowing the technical photography terms.
Point-n-Shoot Anatomy
Light passes through the lens and strikes a micro processing chip called Optics board which drives the lens motors for auto focusing and zooming.
Then it passes through another micro processing chip called Signal processing board which carries out the analog to digital conversion, auto focus, contrast, and data compression.
The final processed image is then passed over to the image sensor.
Image sensor passes it to the LCD.
Viewfinder sees altogether different image from a separate fixed lens.
Point-n-Shoot Pros
Size- These cameras are typically smaller in size. With the advancement of technology today’s point-n-shoot camera can easily be slithered into your tight jean’s back pockets.
Weight- These are very light in weight and as said these don’t require any separate carrying case or backpack. These cameras have fixed lenses thus eliminating the factor of carrying separate lenses.
Auto- These cameras have capability to make decisions based on the scene and the mode you selected. You don’t have to learn the technical aspect of photography. The quality of the captured images from these cameras varies greatly. Now-a-days DSLRs are also equipped with same feature along with their primary controls and functionality.
Maintenance- These require a minimal maintenance attention. Just dust out the front lens and LCD with a soft cloth and that is it.
Compatibility- Most of these cameras are built in with USB port to bridge them directly to photo printers or computers thus making them more compatible with the advancing technologies.
Live View- The provided LCD screen at the back of your point-n-shoot camera is very useful. In fact you will use it 100% to frame a scene. I don’t remember if I have used the viewfinder of my point-n-shoot ever.
Price- Generally point-n-shoot cameras are cheaper but you may want to go up to a range where you can even buy a startup DSLR.
Point-n-Shoot Cons
Quality- These cameras have a very small sensor. The photosites (or simply color pixels) falling on a bigger sensor makes a great positive impact on the quality of a picture. The smaller body of these cameras can accommodate smaller sensors.
Metering- These cameras may or may not have light meter. A light meter is a device used to measure the amount of light. In photography, a light meter is often used to determine the proper exposure for a photograph.
ISO Range- ISO in photography terms is camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. Generally point-n-shoot cameras have only up to 1600 ISO which limits us shooting in different conditions. The ranges are changing these days, many manufacturers are providing up to 3200 ISO which is coming close to DSLRs.
Fixed Apertures- Mostly these cameras have fixed apertures making them less effective in terms of exposure. Due to fixed apertures the models with flash have no way of controlling exposure from flash. One has to be very close to the subject to get a flash picture.
Longer Shutter lag- Point-n-shoot cameras have a one to two second shutter lag time between the time you press shutter release button and the time when photo is actually captured. The longer shutter lag time makes it difficult to take photos quickly and you can miss an important act of sports or babies or any other event.
Startup time- These cameras take at least a second or two to start up. This can also result in missing an important act. You can’t keep them on due to the fact that you don’t have option to shut down the electronic viewer which drains out the battery with in a couple of hours. Now-a-days we can see improvements in this aspect, we can keep the camera on and if it is not used for couple of minutes it goes into sleep mode but again it takes a longer startup time.
Limited Manual Controls- Due to the size priority given to these cameras, they have all their controls hidden into their menus. No manual or instant reachable controls are provided to customize the shooting mode.
LCD Framing: These cameras have LCD screen to frame a scene which never gives proper exposure. Photographer is not at all able to capture what he/she is viewing on the screen. If you are standing in a bright day light you will hardly see anything on the screen. Increasing brightness of the display only makes it easier to see the display but will never set proper exposure.
Fixed Lens- Once bought you will never ever have an option to change lens. You will get stuck with only one lens.
In concluding part I’ll brief out all about DSLR Cameras. So stay on and give your feedback or questions on this. I’ll love to answer your queries.
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In Understanding Shooting Modes (Part-I, II and III) I explained some of the auto and advanced modes. I’ll explain other available modes like Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Macro, and Night in this part.
Other Modes
In today’s cameras many other modes exist which I will be briefing out below. Availability and indication of these modes depends upon brand to brand. These modes are basically preprogrammed modes provided by your camera manufacturer.
Portrait Mode
This mode is mostly represented by a head-and-shoulders icon. It creates a shallow depth-of-field thus throws out the distracting background. Turn the dial to use this mode and your camera will take care of everything else.
Landscape Mode
This mode is mostly represented by a mountain icon. It produces a maximum depth-of-field allowing lens to capture everything including background. This also produces an overall sharp image. Turn the dial to select this mode and your camera will pick the best settings to capture the scene.
Macro Mode
This mode is mostly represented by a flower icon. It activates the camera’s closest focus along with a greatest possible depth-of-field.
Sports Mode
This mode is mostly represented by an icon of a person running. Once the shutter release button is pressed, camera automatically chooses a combination of higher shutter speed and aperture to freeze the motion of the object in motion.
Night Mode
This mode is mostly represented by an icon containing a star, a moon and human image. It uses a slow shutter speed to get maximum amount and length of light.
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In Understanding Shooting Modes (Part-I and Part-II) I explained Auto, Programmed and Aperture Priority Mode, I’ll explain and illustrate one of the other advanced modes called Shutter Priority Mode in this part.
Shutter Priority Mode
This mode lets you choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the appropriate aperture (lens opening) for proper exposure.
Why to use Shutter Priority Mode?
Shutter priority will allow you to control how you capture your subject in motion. This mode is used when you want to increase or decrease the amount of blurring in the picture, the blurring is due to the motion of either the subject or the camera shake.
Try It
Visit some waterfall and experiment the following:
Slow Shutter Speed
Mount the camera on a stable tripod.
Turn your camera’s exposure mode dial to Shutter Priority.
Lower down the shutter speed to 1 Sec (or any thing above 1 Sec).
Focus the waterfall and press shutter release button.
ResultCameras shutter will allow light to fall on the sensor for 2 Sec, this will blur out the falling water giving it a smooth touch as shown below:
Fast Shutter Speed
Mount the camera on a stable tripod.
Turn your camera’s exposure mode dial to Shutter Priority.
Lower down the shutter speed to 1/1000th Sec.
Focus the waterfall and press shutter release button.
ResultCameras shutter will allow light to fall on the sensor for 1/1000th Sec, this will capture the falling water with a great speed thus freezing the motion:
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In continuation to Understanding Shooting Modes (Part-I) where I described the Auto and Programmed Modes, I’ll explain and illustrate one of the advanced modes called Aperture Priority Mode in this part.
Aperture Priority Mode
This mode lets you choose the aperture (lens opening) and the camera chooses the appropriate shutter speed for proper exposure.
Just like human’s eyes, lens of a camera has an opening called iris that opens and closes according to automatic or manual settings. This in optical terms also referred as “Aperture”. Changing the aperture settings changes the size of the opening which controls the amount of light the lens passes through to the image sensor.
Why to use Aperture Priority Mode?
This mode is used when you want to have control over depth-of-field. This is measured in f-stops i.e. f/1.4, f/1.8, etc. Higher f-stop numbers indicate smaller aperture and vice-versa.
The “f-number” is the ratio of distance from the sensor/ film to the optical center of the lens in your camera. When you buy a lens for your camera, it will have a number on it, something like 18mm, 55mm, 105mm, etc. These numbers are called as focal length.
To put all of this simple, when the aperture of a 200mm lens (focal length) is 50 mm (aperture opening) wide, your f-stop will be f/4, because the ratio of 200/50 equals four. If you “stop down” your aperture to half that size – 25 mm wide – your f-stop will be f/8. (200 divided by 25.) So the “f-number” gets larger as you let in less light.
What is Depth-of-Field?
Depth-of-Field is the distance between the closest sharply focused object to the lens and the farthest sharply focused object from the lens. Large apertures (lower f-stop) create shallow depth-of-field and the smaller apertures (higher f-stop) create greater depth of field.
This is a bit confusing. But I learned it using an example of 10 trees standing in a row. Lower f-stops will capture lower number of trees and higher f-stop will capture more numbers of trees.
More Light <<
f/2
f/2.8
f/4
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
>> Less Light
Try it
Visit some nearby garden where you can locate a flower and experiment the following:
Shallow Depth-of-Field
Turn your camera’s exposure mode dial to Aperture Priority.
Lower down the aperture to f2.
Focus the flower and press shutter release button.
ResultThe lower f number will generate a shallow depth of field, thus focusing only the flower, not the background.
Greater Depth-of-Field
Turn your camera’s exposure mode dial to Aperture Priority.
Lower down the aperture to f22.
Focus the flower and press shutter release button.
ResultThe higher f number will generate a larger depth of field, thus focusing everything along with the background.
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Today’s advance digital cameras basically perform automatically many of the tasks necessary for capturing a photo. The Auto mode or the Programmed mode is always a good option for beginners to shoot any scene. However, these modes don’t always produce up to the mark results. If you really want to utilize the power of your DSLR, you must learn and practice all the available modes.
Before discussing any of the available modes, we should understand exposure. Exposure is basically amount of light allowed to fall on photographic film (in case of a film SLR) or on image sensor (in case of a DSLR). The amount of light in a camera is controlled by setting the combination of Aperture and Shutter.
Auto (Point-and-Shoot) Mode
In Auto mode, it’s the camera that makes decision on what amount of light is allowed to fall on the sensor. Today’s digital cameras are intelligent enough to run their own algorithms to attain a best calculated aperture and shutter speed combination based on the projected scene. You don’t have to do anything more than to press the shutter release button. This method is also referred to as the “Point-and-shoot mode”.
Programmed Mode
Some cameras let you preprogram a number of settings like ISO, quality, white balance, aperture or shutter. These settings can be saved in a programmed folder which can be used later. Today’s cameras have prebuilt programmed modes based on the situation, you just have to turn the mode dial to the programmed settings and that is it.
Why to use Auto or Programmed Mode?
Using these modes cut shorts the time it takes for you to set the camera’s settings. Based on the ideal situation and available auto/programmed modes, you just turn the dial and press the shutter release button.
I used these modes when I was a beginner because after shooting l could compare the EXIF data and learned what settings did camera chose based on the projected scene. So, go ahead with these modes only if you are a beginner and study each and every setting that camera opted for the scene. In my public gallery at www.tweakdynamix.com, you can view EXIF data for each of the photos that I took.
How to Use the Camera in Auto/ Programmed Mode?
Well; these are the quickest mode to shoot. Just turn the mode dial to Auto/ Programmed mode based on the scene and press the shutter release button. The camera will use its sensors to make its best guess at most suited f-stop and shutter speed required for a good exposure.
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In traditional film photography terms ISO indicates sensitivity of a photographic negative film to light. It is measured in numbers i.e. 200, 400, 800, etc. The lower numbers indicate lower sensitivity of the film with finer quality in the pictures.
In Digital Photographyterms ISO indicates sensitivity of the image sensor to light. The concept remains the same i.e. lower the number the less sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light along with a finer quality of the pictures taken. Higher numbers like 800, 1000, 3200 are generally used in dark/ nightly conditions to attain faster shutter speeds. Higher ISO results in grainy/ noisy pictures.
Picture ISO1 is an example that I recently shot in one of the indoor gardens in DC. The left picture has been shot with lower ISO of 200 and the right one has been shot with higher ISO of 1600.
The difference is noticeable. Left picture with ISO 200 has a fine quality as compared to the right which was shot with ISO 1600.
ISO Speed & Exposure
ISO speed affects the shutter speed/ aperture combination you can use to obtain correct exposure.
In darker situations you will probably use the on-board or external flash but if that is not allowed then you would need to use a higher ISO. There are basically two ways of handling ISO:
- Set on “ISO Auto” mode, your intelligent digital camera will run some algorithms and automatically select a higher ISO based on the lighting conditions.
- Manually select the next higher ISO and see if the increased sensitivity allows you to obtain a correctly exposed picture. If it does, you can now take a correctly exposed picture.
When you manually choose a specific ISO you’ll notice that it impacts the shutter speed and aperture needed for a well exposed shot. Suppose you raised your ISO up from 100 to 400 you’ll notice that you can shoot at higher shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures.
Choosing ISO
Choosing ISO settings basically depend upon following factors and you should consider these before setting your camera’s ISO:
Lighting conditions – Is the subject well lit?
Grain/ Noise – Is the picture so important that noise has no importance?
Tripod – Should I use a tripod for shooting fine quality with lower ISO?
Motion – Is the subject in motion or stationary?
If the subject is well lit, I want fine quality, my subject is not in motion and I have a tripod- I will opt for lower ISO (may be 100 or 200).
However if it is dark, the subject is so important that I don’t care about noise/ grain in my picture, I don’t have time to set up my tripod because I want to shoot a moving subject- I might consider increasing the ISO to 400 or 800. This will allow me to shoot at faster speed and still expose the shot well. d still expose the shot well.
Where to choose higher ISO?
No Flash Zones- Concerts, Art Galleries, Churches, etc. have rules against using a flash and of course being indoors, these places are not well lit.
Indoor Sports Events – where your subject is moving fast yet you may have limited light available.
Birthday/ Disco Parties – blowing out the candles in a dark room and flashing the disco floor can give you a nice moody shot which would be ruined by a bright flash. Increasing the ISO can help capture the scene.
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Portrait Mode
Landscape Mode
Macro Mode
Sports Mode
Night Mode
