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Digital Photography Basics -Why You Should Choose a Digital Compact vs DSLR

If you want to learn the basics of digital photography, it really doesn't matter whether you're using a digital compact or a DSLR with the exception of these few important differences.

Digital Compacts

One of the biggest advantages to digital compacts is the cost. Another thing to consider when buying a DSLR is that you will need to purchase at least one lens for your camera especially if you want to take distant photographs. Digital compacts always come with a built in lens and sometimes even come with a zoom.

If you have an optical zoom on your digital compact, you can get some good quality telephoto shots too. An Optical zoom is always better than digital zoom because a digital zoom works like cropping and takes away pixels. The more you zoom with digital zoom, the lower the quality of your photograph. On the other hand, an optical zoom maintains the quality of your photo.

Some compacts produce such high quality photographs that many a pro will grab the compact if they dont' want to carry all their DSLR gear. The quality of the photo depends largely on the photographer's skill.

While digital compacts don't have as many mega pixels as DSLRs, with only 5 mega pixels, you can produce an 8x10 print of the type of quality you'd be proud to display in an 8x10 picture frame on your wall.

And lastly, learning how to use a digital compact is a lot easier than learning how to use a DSLR with all of its functions.

Digital Single Lens Reflexes (DSLRs)

A digital single lens reflex is the digital version of the SLR. DSLR's are also called SLRs but never the other way around. With the debut of the Canon Rebel and other more moderately priced DSLRs (relatively speaking) a few years ago, more photography enthusiasts are discovering the advantages of a DSLR.

The big advantage of the DSLR is its creativity and versatility.

For example, by adding a long telephoto lenses, you can capture a close up of an osprey at the top of a towering pine tree or a child at the soccer goal post when you're at the other end of the field. With a DSLR, you can find all kinds of accessories to suit almost any photographer's need.

Another advantage to the DSLR is its ability to take crisp, focused sports and other action shots in places with low light where flash isn't allowed. The larger sensor on a DSLR allows you to adjust the ISO and get a good picture, whereas with a compact it usually creates an image with a lot of grain called digital noise. If you are taking still photos, it's not a problem. The problem with Sports mode in a low light setting is that the shutter must close so fast that in spite of a larger aperture setting, there's just not enough light hitting the image sensor. The only way this can be overcome is with a flash or a higher ISO setting.

However, you can get rid of most digital noise by using photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop.

Another advantage of using a DSLR is that you can use an external flash instead of always having to use natural light.

DSLRs have more megapixels than the best of the digital compacts, meaning you can take and print high quality pictures for framing in large picture frames like 11x14 frames or larger.. And lastly, digital cameras are slower to take pictures than film cameras but DSLRs are much faster than digital compacts.

Remember, digital photography basics start with choosing a camera, but the quality of the photographs largely depend on the skill of the photographer. So no matter what type of camera you have or will be buying, it pays to practice.

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