Re: Thirteen Reasons to choose a Digital SLR over a Point and Shoot

Most of the REAL technological advancements in photography are going on in
the area of P&S and Cell Phone cameras. When it comes to camera
Usefulness,,,, Size, and Carryability matters. If you don't have the camera
with you, you won't get the shot. Lugging around 20lbs of DSLR equipment is
only for the real diehards.


NM





"SMS" <scharf.steven@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B6LPk.5966$yr3.2878@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
With all the misinformation being posted by our friend with multiple
personalities, I thought that it would be a good idea to repost the facts
regarding the advantages of digital SLRs over digital P&S cameras. If I've
missed any of the advantages please follow-up with them.

Thirteen Reasons to choose a Digital SLR over a Point and Shoot

1. You shoot in low light.
Modern digital SLRs are able to produce low noise images at ISO speeds
up to 1600, depending on the camera. Point and shoot cameras, with their
small sensors, begin to exhibit noise at ISO 200, with some poorer
models being too noisy even at 100 ISO.

2. You want to use flash attachments.
While a few higher end point and shoot digital models have hot shoes for
an external flash, most do not. Some Canon P&S models without hot shoes
can use a wireless flash, but it's not a great flash unit.

3. You need a wide-angle lens.
Digital SLRs have super-wide-angle zoom lenses available with an
effective focal length of as little as 16mm. There are no point and
shoot digital cameras with lenses that wide. With some point and shoot
cameras you can add on adapters to increase the wide-angle range, but even
the best adapters are of mediocre quality.

4. You need a long telephoto lens.
Whether it?s doing wildlife photography in Alaska, or shooting at
sporting events, only a digital SLR can use long telephoto lenses. If
you only need a specialty lens for rare occasions, you can even rent one
for a couple of days. With some point and shoot cameras you can add on
adapters to increase the telephoto range but even the best adapters are of
mediocre quality.

5. You need fast auto-focus.
Most digital SLRs (with the exception of Pentax) use lenses with
internal high-speed focusing motors). Point and shoot digital cameras
cannot focus nearly as fast.

6. You need low shutter lag.
Whether it?s photographing your child on a merry-go-round, or capturing
the crack of the bat against the baseball, you cannot obtain these shots
with a digital point and shoot camera because the time between when you
press the shutter and the image is captured is far too long. A digital
SLR has a mechanical shutter that opens instantaneously when the shutter
release button is pressed. In a point and shoot camera, the sensor is
activated electronically after it is used to focus the shot.

7. You want to produce images that can be printed in large sizes.
Only a high-resolution digital SLR is suitable for poster size prints.

8. You want an optical viewfinder.
While a few point and shoot cameras have retained an optical viewfinder,
it?s been cost-reduced out of most models. Composing a picture on the
LCD screen, in bright sunlight, is very difficult.

9. You want full manual control.
While some high-end point and shoot models have retained some level of
manual control, most have cost-reduced it out. On some Canon models,
there is third-party software that can get some of the manual control
back, but it's very flaky and complicated.

10. Expandability and upgradability.
Not only a wide variety of specialty lenses, but flash attachments,
filters, vertical grips, remote shutter releases, etc. If you eventually
want to upgrade to a better D-SLR body, a lot of the lenses and
accessories can be used on the new body if it?s from the same
manufacturer.

11. Rapid sequencing. For action shots, both of sports and people, you can
get the exact shot you want, even when the people are moving.

12. Cost. Say what? Yes, it?s true. With the free-fall of digital SLR
prices, you can now buy a D-SLR and a decent lens for less than the cost
of a high end point and shoot camera.

13. Wide-range walk-around lenses. It used to be that people would buy a
wide-range ?SLR-like? P&S because they could achieve a wide zoom range
from wide-angle to telephoto without needing to change lenses, even though
the quality of these wide-range lenses wasn?t very good at the ends. Now
with several new wide-range D-SLR lenses, there is the option of not
having to change lenses. You can still use higher end wide angle and
telephoto lenses when the need arises, while enjoying the simplicity of a
wide-range zoom lens when you choose to be m


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