Should I get a DSLR? What is a DSLR? Why are they so expensive??
Short answer: depends, cameras that look like the ones the pros use, and Lord knows why.
Now obviously, you aren’t reading this article for one sentence. I hope you’re far more curious than that. If you are, do read along. I hope I can satiate some of your burning questions.
First things first.
What is a DSLR?
DSRL stands for Digital Single Lenszzz… *yawn*.
A DSLR is basically any camera with which you can change lenses and contains a moving mirror mechanism inside. It’s why they’re generally so bulky; they need to house a moving mirror within, as opposed to smartphones & compact digital cameras (aka point-and-shoots), which utilize no such moving mechanism. Why are some other DSLRs bulkier than others? Excellent question. I don’t know. I shall do my research and delve into that in a follow-up article!
Just fyi, DSLR stand for Digital Single Lens Reflex. The original film cameras were called SLRs because well, they weren’t digital.
Why do people get DSLRs? A modern smartphone takes a mighty fine picture on its own.
That is certainly true! Modern smartphones are incredible and oftentimes outdo many point-and-shoots and even older DSLRs. Furthermore, smartphones make it super easy to share content with others and/or on social media. However, where many smartphones and point-and-shoots falter is in control. In both devices, the best setting is generally auto, or the special effects setting. Most other settings that are supposed to give you more control over the settings frequently lead to frustration.
DSLRs are built to have the settings fiddled with. And they usually aren’t a nightmare to operate. You have complete control over your shutter speed, ISO, and aperture — I’ll go over these in an upcoming article, don’t you worry. What this means to you as a photographer is that you can capture the image exactly how you want it. Sure, it may take some fiddling to get the settings right, but at least you aren’t pressing the shutter speed and praying that the photo captured is the one you wanted to capture in terms of color saturation, exposure, etc.
With this control, you can easily get those gorgeous blurred background shots (they’re also called bokeh or depth of field) you so often see in portrait or macro photographs. You can also easily achieve those beautiful light trail photos.
On top of that, DSLR photos are rarely ‘noisy’. What? How can a picture be noisy?? Well, noise is what you call unwanted distortion in an image. Often, noisy images look pixelated, or grainy and in some cases, can lead to splotchy discoloration. Noise usually occurs when shooting in the dark without sufficient lighting or at very high ISO. With a smartphone or point-and-shoot, a noisy image also occurs when you zoom in too close. With a DSLR, the zoom is always optical, thus drastically reducing the chances of a noisy image. This too I will cover in a follow up article.
Should I get a DSLR?
The question I pose to everyone who has ever asked me that question is, “are you passionate about taking pictures?” By passionate I mean you’re often pulling out your digital camera/smartphone and you are meticulous in your photographs. Now carefully consider the following questions;
- Are you often frustrated with how you cannot get the shots you want?
- Do you feel happy & satisfied whenever a photograph tums out as good as you hoped?
- Do you follow Instagram accounts that post beautiful, high quality photographs & aspire to post content of similar quality?
If you said yes to everything I said, then a DSLR is likely going to be a satisfying investment.
If DSRLs seem so great, why doesn’t every Tom, Dick, and Stanley use one? Well, that’s because of the…
DRAWBACKS
I love DSLRs. I love the control I have over all the various settings and of course the image quality. That does not mean however that DSLRs do not have their own drawbacks. The biggest drawback of DSLRs is the price. Even a basic DSLR can be considerably more expensive than a point-and-shoot.
Another major drawback is the lens. If you’re used to being able to zoom in close then being able to zoom out very far at the flick of a switch, you won’t be able to do this with u DSLR. You will need to buy multiple lenses to do this & potentially keep swapping lenses, which takes time and exposes the sensitive sensor/mirror mechanism to dust and other contaminants every time you swap. This also makes getting into DSLRs an expensive endeavour. Even a cheap lens can easily set you back 200-300 dollars. Fancier lenses will easily set you back more than $1000. That is a lot of moolah to be throwing around.
Point-and-shoots are a typically a lot cheaper and offer more versatility. A smartphone is more expensive than many entry-level DSLRs but is obviously way better at multitasking than both DSLRs and digital cameras.
In the next article, I will go more in depth into the settings — aperture, ISO, shutter speed — and how they affect the final picture.
Techlense 
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