In my previous post “Is it worth upgrading to DSLR? (Part-I)” I wrote about understanding the characteristics, anatomy, Pros and Cons of point-n-shoot camera. In this concluding part I would like to brief out characteristics, anatomy, Pros and Cons of a DSLR. This will help you make a decision to whether or not to upgrade your gear to DSLR.
DSLR Characteristics
DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. These cameras can be mounted with a variety of lenses like fish eye, wide angle, telephoto, etc. Such a variety of interchangeable lenses provides you with a greater creative control over ability to select lenses based on virtually any photographic situation.
The other major design difference between DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras is that most DSLRs only provide a “through-the-lens” optical viewfinder, although some models such as select Sony α (alpha) DSLRs feature the ability to compose and see a live preview of your shots on the camera’s LCD monitor. For DSLRs that don’t include this feature, you frame the shot by holding the viewfinder up to your eye.
Point-n-Shoot Anatomy
Light rays pass through the lens and strike a mirror.
The mirror reflects the light up to a focusing screen
Light rays then enter a block of glass called a pentaprism where they are reflected to produce an image which can be seen in the viewfinder.
When you press the shutter release button, the mirror flips up and shutter opens up which exposes the image to image sensor.
DSLR Pros
Image Quality- These cameras usually have bigger image sensors as compared to compact point-n-shoot cameras. For a 8-10 Megapixel point-n-shoot the size of image sensor is approximately 8.5 x 6.5 mm and a startup DSLR with same Megapixels will have an image sensor approximately 23 x 15 mm. As I said larger image sensor translates directly to better image quality in terms of fineness, color depth, detail and dynamic range.
Full Control- Unlike point-n-shoot cameras, DSLRs offers a huge list of customizable options. You can manually set your own fully or partial combination of shutter speed and aperture, white balance, contrast, metering, auto/manual focus, depth of field, ISO, etc. Along with these manual setting today’s DSLRS also offer dial mode feature where you can handle your camera just like a point-n-shoot. Just turn the dial to available shooting modes and click the shutter release button.
No Shutter Lag- DSLRs have virtually no delay between the time that you click the shutter and the image is taken due to the fact that they focus at a very great speed. You can continuously press shutter release button to get a burst of images without waiting in-between. I guarantee, you will never miss an important shot due to shutter lag.
Instant Startup- Now-a-days DSLRs have instant startup times. This makes a lot sense when you see a fast flying UFO and your camera is in OFF mode, you quickly grab your camera start it and capture the unbelievable moments. With a point-n-shoot camera this seems to be a dream because it will take a couple of seconds to warm up and then focus for another second making your UFO invisible into the skies
Minimal Noise- Due to large image sensors in these cameras the setting of 100 ISO will produce less noisy image as compared with same setting in a point-n-shoot.
You get what you see- Unlike point-n-shoot cameras, you get the same image in the viewfinder what your image sensor see.
Higher ISO Range- DSLRs normally beat the ISO range in point-n-shoot. They may rage from 100-3200+ ISO these days. I’ve explained ISO in detail with an illustration in one of my posts during the month of May 2009.
Depth-of-Field- I love this concept. Just blur out the objects you don’t want in your scene. Using a combination of Shutter and aperture setting you can set your own depth of field. Stay on for my post on this concept soon.
A Lens for every occasion- Once bought a DSLR you don’t get stuck with single fixed lens because you can upgrade your lenses with shooting conditions like capturing close up of that little honey bee on a sunflower or capturing your baby’s naughty little acts or looking directly into the eyes of a ferocious lion or capturing that beautiful eagle taking its flight. These cameras can be mounted with a great variety of lenses ranging from super wide angle to Telephoto lenses. Wait for my post that I am planning to write soon on lenses.
Adaptability- Onceboughta DSLR let me assure you won’t have to upgrade to a new camera that often because DSLRmodels do not get updated quite as often as point and shoot models. You will only upgrade your lenses that to depends upon your shooting requirements.
External Flash- With DSLRs you get an option to have an external flash unit which gives you a bigger are to cover with illumination. You even have an option to have multiple remote slave flash units with your camera which gives you more illumination. Wait for my post on understanding flash, where I am planning to cover all kinds of basic to advance flash operation to attain pro like quality of pictures.
DSLR Cons
Weight- DSLRs are basically lot heavier and bulkier than point-n-shoot. Planning for an outing with your DSLR will add up another piece of a backpack to your luggage. My own DSLR with 18-105 mm lens kit build up a load of 5 Lbs. I can easily slide my point-n-shoot in my jeans pocket.
Price- Even though DSLRs are becoming more and more affordable, you can still get a low-end point-n-shoot camera for much less money. Once bought a DSLR body you will surely have to have a lens kit, a couple of filters, tripod, monopod, external flash unit, reflectors, macro lenses, etc. We are actually talking about a collection of four figures USD.
Sheer learning curve- Buying a DSLR simply can’t make you a good photographer, you will have to learn and practice a lot. Before and after buying a DSLR you will have to do a lot of study and practice to attain a professional ‘WOW’ picture. If you plan to own a DSLR study and practice the concepts like ISO, Exposure, White Balance, Metering, Aperture, Shutter Speed, and a lot more. If you don’t want to go deeper into the technical aspects and planning only using full time auto mode, my suggestion to you is stick with your point-n-shoot.
Maintenance- For my point-n-shoot I never ever have to care about the dust going into the camera body. Although I often clean the front fixed lens with a soft cloth but that is not a geek’s business. In case of DSLR you have a variety of lenses that you mount and un mount based on shooting conditions. Every time you mount-un mount you expose your DSLRs’ expensive image sensor and reflex optics to dust. Dust on an image sensor can result in blemished mages and cleaning out the dust is no layman’s job. A small mistake can cost you a loss of your camera optics.
That creepy motor noise- Since DSLRs are bigger in size they have bigger optics and to control those optics they have motors inbuilt. Every time you auto focus you will hear a noise from lens’s motor. For some this might be a point of consideration.
Live View- In many DSLRs the only way to frame your scene is with an optical viewfinder. Although now-a-days you can see a couple of manufacturers that provide Live View LCD but taking pictures using a live view is never a perfect idea.
Now that I’ve brief out the pros and cons of DSLRs and Point-n-Shoot Cameras, I leave you to make your best decision to upgrade or not. In my next post I’ll post a very important entry, which will help you choosing a good DSLR Camera.
Hope you enjoyed this post of mine.
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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
