Ten reasons to choose a Digital SLR over a Point and Shoot

Ten 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In article <473e141a$0$79880$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>, SMS ÊñØËíÇÊñá’Ä¢
夏 <scharf.steven RemoveThis @geemail.com> wrote:

> 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.

if there is no hotshoe or flash sync socket, then as little as $10 will
buy a flash slave (and some of the slaves handle pre-flashes).

> 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.

there are wide angle attachments and nikon even makes a fisheye
attachment for the coolpix cameras.

<http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/accessory/converter/fc-e9/index.
htm>

> 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.

there are telephoto attachments and some cameras have fairly long range
zooms without any adapter.

> 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.

pentax is not anywhere near as slow as you make it out to be, nor is
screw coupling in general.

> 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.

shutter lag can be minimized with careful pre-focus/preset exposure.
however, that is not ideal in all situations.

> 7. You want to produce images that can be printed in large sizes.

you mean like the billboard in times square from a 3 megapixel coolpix
990? so much for not being able to make large prints.

> Only a high-resolution digital SLR is suitable for poster size prints.

it depends on viewing distance, among other things.

> 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.

not always. and if it is a problem, there are lcd shades that are
quite cheap (plus just using a hand to shadow it works).

> 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.

a lot of p&s cameras have manual control.

> 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.

what is it with you and vertical grips? someone who buys a p&s camera
is NOT interested in bloating it up with a vertical grip. that
basically defeats the size advantage of a p&s. nevertheless, if you
insist on a vertical grip, nikon (and maybe others) have one for some
of their models, such as the 8700.

<http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/NikonCP8700/Images/Accessories/mb-e57
00.jpg>

also, many p&s cameras have filter threads and they can be controlled
by the usb port (or serial port for the older models). nikon even made
a filter kit, remote control with intervalometer and a ring flash for
the coolpix cameras:

<http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonCP8700/page4.asp>
<http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/nikon4500/4500_sl-1.jpg>