Switching to a DSLR from a Point & Shoot

Hi! So you are thinking of switching to a DLSR camera from your P&S. What should you expect? What should you know? Lets see...
Firstly, getting yourself a DSLR is not going to make your photos amazing right out of the box. Its infact going to be hard to get a decent image the first one week. Getting great pictures requires interest, patience, perseverance and ofcourse you should not be shy to carry your camera around people.

What you should expect if you are thinking of getting a DSLR:

1. Great image quality in terms of sharpness, color rendition and exposure (How bright or dark the image is).
2. Great battery life. You can take around 450-500 shots a charge with a Nikon D40, the smallest and lightest DSLR available. It only gets better with more expensive cameras.
3. Great print quality. You can print great looking images with a picture made with a DSLR. Not that you cant make great prints with a P&S, its just that there is a difference and its in favour of the DSLR.
4. Fast frame rate. This means you can just keep clicking many shots continuosly as long as you keep the release button pressed. This is not the same as burst mode. Its just continuous shooting. You'll love it for action shots and sports.
   
5. Added responsiblity. This is something many people overlook! Think about this seriously. You cannot take your DSLR in your pocket. You cannot carry it in your purse. These cameras are heavy compared to a Point and Shoot camera and you need to use both your hands to get a good picture.
   
6. Some amount of attention from people around you. (Especially if you are into street photography). DSLRs make you look like a PRO and to most people, it means that either you are a tourist or you work for the PRESS! So be ready for this!
7. Camera care. Be ready to spend atleast 20mins once a month (or even a week depending on how dusty your environment is) to clean your camera. The lens is extremely delicate and needs attention. You need to care for your camera. Its your investment. As long as you do this, your camera will never disappoint you for years!

Ok, so those are briefly what you should be looking forward to if you are planning to buy a DSLR.
Now, lets look at some things that you will probably miss from your point and shoot.

1. Manual zoom! Yes, there are NO buttons labelled "W" (wide) and "T" (Tele) on a DSLR. You need to zoom by holding the zoom ring on the lens and turning it manually. This is acually not a big deal. You'll get used to it in minutes. And you'll love it.
2. No "live view"! This means you have to look into the viewfinder to shoot. You will not a get the live view on the screen. On newer DSLRs which are launched in 2008 and later, live view is available on certain models but not all. I prefer the viewfinder. Its lets you focus on your picture and compose the shot well. Also, it saves a lot of battery life for actual shooting.
3. No Video! Ok, so you take a lot of short clips with your P&S. You cant do that with a DSLR. (New! Nikon D90 and Canon 5D Mark II have video modes!). Basic DSLRs cannot afford to have video modes built into them. They work in a different way compared to P&S cameras and it requires more engineering to put video abilities into DSLRs. You should be buying a camcorder if you love video and not a DSLR anyway! =)

Thats about it. Todays P&S have excellent quality and they are portable. But you'll certainly find a big difference once you shoot with a DSLR. The advantage of having interchangable lenses is something great! You can get really creative and have no limitations with an SLR camera. So if you are really thinking of getting one, as a first DSLR, get either a Nikon D40 or D60 or a Canon EOS 1000D or 450D XSi. They are the entry level models and are good value for money. I personally love Nikon and I love my D40. Dont worry about the mega pixels. Just worry about looking for cool things to photograph!

How does a Digital Camera make a picture?

Hey folks! Generally, in compact cameras, everything is automatic. You just point and shoot. This limits the creativity of the photographer and hence all the images look the same. In SLR cameras and certain models of compact cams, there are manual modes. In this mode, the photographer can control various functions of the camera manually to get the right look.
To understand what you can achieve, let me take you through what actually happens when you click a photo with an automatic camera. In a traditional film camera, you load the roll of film and start shooting. In this roll, there are usually around 36 exposures. Or you can make 36 photos with one roll of film. Each light-sensitive area is aligned, using an automated motorized mechanism, with the focal point of the lens. This area is approximately 35mm wide and 24 mm high. Hence the film used is called 35mm film.
Since this part of the film is light-sensitive, there is a curtain in front of it and a shutter that opens and closes to let light in. It is closed at all times except when you click.
Now, in Digital cameras, there is no film. Instead there is a light-sensitive sensor in the same place. The sensor has electronically charged pixels that grab light data as soon as light enters it just like how the chemicals of the film would react to light. When you "click", you are pressing the shutter release button. The built-in light meter will analyze the amount of light on the subject, and then rapidly open and close the shutter to let the right amount of light fall on the sensor. This is how the pixels grab all the data and convert it into an image. This is stored in a compressed form as a JPEG file. This file is displayed on the LCD screen of your camera.
That is what happens in a fraction of a second when you click a picture.
Hope it was informative! Next time, i will explain what are shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, White Balance, etc.

Cheers!

What are Mega Pixels?

Hey there! Did you notice that in the last post, i never mentioned anything regarding mega pixels?
Well, that's cause its not really important. Let me explain. (WARNING: Technical Stuff!)
A Pixel is a tiny single "data dot" that stores information about the three primary colors used in digital imaging: Red, Blue and Green - RGB. In any image, LCD screen or monitor, these pixels are arranged in perfect straight lines, vertically and horizontally to make a line of data in that direction. For example, your computer's screen resolution defaults to 1024x768 pixels. This means that there are 1024 Columns and 768 Rows of Pixels. Hence the number of pixels that are being used are 1024 multiplied by 768. Hence, each pixel carries a sample of the image and more pixels carry more of these samples making the image clearer and bigger at the same time.
More about this here.

What is a Mega Pixel? Its simply one million pixels. So, when a digital camera has 5 Mega pixels, it means the image it makes will have 5 million pixels in total. Lets take the example of my Nikon D40. Its a 6.1 MP camera. Which means six million pixels. How can i be sure? Its easy. The images i get from the camera are 3000x2000 pixels. Which means 6 million pixels. I Hope you get the idea now. So, when a camera is 12 MP, it is capable of making an image of size approximately 4000x3000 pixels. Note: Its not double of 6MP!! Double would be 6000x4000! So 12MP is not really much bigger than 6 MP. All this may not even be necessary to you. Then why bother? Sure more mega pixels means bigger and higher resolution pictures. But doesn't matter.

Why? Well, how many of you have bought an 8 MP pocket camera, then shot a bunch of pictures and then printed them?? I don't think anyone has. When i had a pocket camera, i shot thousands of pictures and i only printed 10-15 of them at 4x6 inches (regular photo size).
There lies the whole megapixel issue. Mega pixels only matter if you print. More mega pixels means you can print bigger. The truth is that mega pixels are a sales pitch these days and people blindly buy a camera when the salesman says "This one is 10 megapixels! Its the new model!". One can easily make 12x18inch prints out of 6 MP picture. And 12x18 inches is more than enough for the common person like me and you.
With that said, i wont let this post go longer. Mega pixels matter only if you print large. They do not bother with color, tone and saturation which are more important.

Think about finding colorful things to photograph and not how many mega pixels mine or your camera is!

Any questions and i will gladly answer! Happy Clicking!

What is a DSLR camera?

Hey there! Welcome to my photography blog! Since this is the first post, let me explain what an SLR camera is and how it is different from a compact camera.
SLR is short for Single Lens Reflex. Today, we have DSLRs which are nothing but Digital SLRs.
This blog is for everyone out there and i do not want to get into the dirty technical details of how these things work. There's this place for that! And it will scare half the people reading this and will put the other half to sleep!! So, here's what you should know. How is it different from a compact camera (also called Point and Shoot or P&S)?
Firstly, everyone should know that the camera does not matter. The camera does not make pictures. Its the photographer who makes pictures. The camera is just a tool. And is usually quite expensive and equally useful!

1. DSLRs are made for rugged use (Not the base models). Compacts are not. You can take a DSLR into the wild, get it wet, bang it around (not intentionally!) and it will not only work, but will still help you take the picture of that subject you were looking for.
2. DSLRs are heavy and big. They are not portable nor pocket-able like compact cameras. This is quite obvious if you have seen a DSLR.
3. You can change lenses on a DSLR depending on what you want to shoot or the kind of photography you do and you zoom manually. Compacts have a fixed lens and you zoom them with buttons, usually labelled "W" and "T" (will tell you what they mean later).
4. DSLRs make colorfully rich pictures, full of detail and sharpness. Compacts fail to do so due to other convinience compromises.
5. DSLRs have a high sensitivity to light. This means you can shoot at low light without tripods at conviniently high shutterspeeds. P&S cameras cant do this well. Some do, but the pictures are too noisy ("Noisy" in photography means "dirty" or "grainy").
6. DSLRs last long and the lenses last even longer. The lenses that your dad bought can be used today if you have the right camera. Compacts last a very short time and they are easily spoilt.
7. Compacts have a live view of the lens. That is you just have to look into the LCD screen at the back of the camera and shoot. But, in older DSLRs (whatever they made before 2008) you have to look through the viewfinder. This actually helps you concentrate on composition and also makes you look PRO! ;) You use the LCD screen only for reviewing the images that you have shot.
   
8. Finally, SLR cameras are much more expensive. The cameras used by journalists today cost around $8000. But you can get a basic DSLR for a tenth of that amount.

Thats all i can think of for now. But remember, just like a golfer does not improve as soon as he buys the most expensive golf kit out there, a photographer does not make awe-inspiring pictures as soon as he gets the best camera out there. DSLRs are the way to go PRO, no doubt. But if you cant make great shots with your Sony Cybershot or a Canon PowerShot, chances are that you will not get great shots with a DSLR. Be it a Nikon, Canon or this camera that costs as much as a brand new Mercedes Benz.

Happy Clicking!