When I became a professional photographer, the first thing I did was buy a bridge camera. The second thing I did was go on a safari in Kenya. The third thing I did was buy a DSLR camera!
But what is a DSLR camera? And what does DSLR stand for? Read on to find out.
DSLR stands for digital single-lens reflex.
The problem with designing a camera is that light from the subject can’t reach the viewfinder and the sensor simultaneously. In other words, you can either see your subject or photograph it, but not both! The problem gets even worse if you want autofocus, which also needs light.
To solve this problem, camera manufacturers have come up with different types of cameras. But, twin-lens reflex (TLR), single-lens translucent (SLT), and mirrorless cameras all have drawbacks:
The digital single-lens reflex camera solves these problems by getting a mirror to reflect most of the light to a pentaprism (see diagram).
Some light passes through the semi-transparent reflex mirror to a secondary mirror. This then reflects it towards an autofocus sensor.
When you press the shutter button, both mirrors flip up, the shutter opens, and light passes through to the sensor. This causes the viewfinder to blackout.
After the exposure, the mirrors flip down again. The light is then bounced up to the pentaprism, and the subject reappears in the viewfinder.
There are two main types of DSLR—full-frame and crop sensor.
Full-frame DSLR cameras have an image sensor the size of an old-fashioned 35mm film frame (36x24mm). They are the gold standard for photography. Plus, they have the highest performance in terms of resolution, autofocus, frame rate, etc. But all those features make them bulky and expensive. The top Nikon and Canon cameras sell for thousands.
Crop sensor DSLRs such as Canon’s APS-C range or Nikon’s DX series have smaller sensors. The crop factor defines these sensors. The diagonal distance of a full-frame sensor is divided by the diagonal distance of the crop sensor. You get the equivalent focal length on a full-frame camera by multiplying the lens’s focal lengths by the crop factor. For instance, a 100mm lens on a Nikon DX camera body is the same as a 150mm lens on an FX body (100 x 1.5).
The benefit of extra magnification comes from fewer pixels on a smaller sensor. As a result, the quality of crop sensor images will never be as good as that of full-frame images. You can see this if you try to pair a DX lens with a full-frame body. Because the image is being cropped, the camera automatically selects DX-format rather than FX.
There are many other digital camera options out there to consider. But only one matches what a DSLR can do.
I often see guests taking pictures with their iPhones on a safari, and it’s a bit of a shame. Smartphone sensor resolution is better than ever. But the real drawback of using your phone as a camera is that you can’t zoom in very far.
My iPhone has a 12MP (megapixel) imaging sensor and a maximum (optical) magnification of 2.5x. If you assume the human eye is like a 50mm lens, that’s the equivalent of a 125mm focal length (2.5 x 50). That doesn’t help if you’re trying to photograph a rhino half a mile away!
Of course, you can always use the 7x digital zoom, but that just means using fewer and fewer pixels. Plus, you get poorer and poorer resolution.
A point-and-shoot camera only used to be good enough for parties and beach holidays. But their average specifications have improved enormously. You can now get compact cameras with the following:
But overall, image quality and features are still a step down from a DSLR camera. Plus, they don’t have interchangeable lenses, so you’re stuck with one camera lens.
These are compact cameras that offer a broader zoom range. For example, the Nikon Coolpix P1000 has a 125x optical superzoom. That’s like having a full-frame camera with a 24-3000mm lens! But all that magnification comes at a cost. The camera’s sensor isn’t big enough to let you crop in very far or make poster-size prints out of your images.
You can check out the full Nikon Coolpix p1000 specs here, or compare them with the P950 here.
The only serious competition for the DSLR camera comes from mirrorless systems. The latest models can do everything a digital SLR can do. Plus, mirrorless cameras have 30fps continuous shooting and advanced eye detection and tracking.
Yes, they still have an electronic rather than an optical viewfinder. But blackouts and viewfinder lag are a thing of the past. EVFs are now so bright and display so much helpful information. They’ve become a feature, not a bug.
DSLR cameras still don’t offer a perfect solution. And there’s been more and more interest in mirrorless technology. Here are some disadvantages of DSLRs:
The reflex mirror itself also causes problems. First of all, it’s still true that you can’t look through the viewfinder and take a picture simultaneously.
Yes, you only see a brief flicker if you’re in single-shot mode at 1/1000 s. But if you’re shooting at 1/5 s at five frames per second, the viewfinder is almost permanently blacked out! That’s one of the main reasons I switched to mirrorless.
Second, the movement of the mirror itself causes vibration. That might cause motion blur if you’re using a slow shutter speed.
Third, the existence of the mirror makes using the viewfinder impossible when shooting video. This has to be done using the rear LCD screen on a DSLR camera.
A key benefit of a DSLR camera is interchangeable lenses. That means we can change the focal length by simply swapping lenses. DSLRs have been around for so long that there’s a huge range of lenses on the market. These aren’t produced only by the major camera brands such as Canon, Nikon, and Sony. There are also third-party manufacturers like Tamron and Sigma.
Replacing film with an image sensor makes digital photography far cheaper and more convenient. I take up to 4,000 pictures a day on safari. Imagine how much that would cost if I had a film camera! Plus, DSLR camera sensors tend to be larger than ones in compact or bridge cameras. This makes them better in low light.
Manufacturers also assume serious photographers will have a DSLR and not another kind of digital camera. As a result, they add many other prime features:
What is a DSLR? It’s a great digital camera option for the enthusiast and professional alike. It’s feature-rich and has better specifications than other digital cameras. Forget about smartphones, compacts, and bridge cameras. Its only challenger now is the mirrorless camera.
Before you go, why not check out these top DSLR camera specs:
Or, why not filter through all the cameras in our database to find the one that suits your needs!
