Why Buy a DSLR?

Over the last 10 years camera have come on in leaps and bounds, first digital then more and more megapixels and now with consumer cameras which cost under £200 having more mega pixels than some professional DSLRs, alot of people are wondering why do you need to buy a professional DSLR if you get the same results with a consumer level camera.

Now there are many issues to consider when buying a camera and here are just a few of them
What is the camera going to be used for?
This one is simple to answer do you plan to use the camera for work or simply for fun. By work I mean take photos professionally, whether that be at weddings, portraits, events, PR, selling stock photographs or what ever.

If you plan to use the camera for work then you have to buy a larger DSLR rather than a smaller consumer camera, and although the photo quality will be better, the simple fact that someone is paying you to take photographs means you cant really turn up with a small camera.

Think of it this way in any professional work environment there are always the professional standard equipment, from kitchens to garages, hair salons to hotels, and photography is no different. You need to invest in your equipment in order to get the best out of your work.

MegaPixels
Now at first glance you may think that you can buy a consumer camera with the same amount of mega pixels as DSLR, and whilst on paper this is true in reality it is not, also as you go further up the professional DSLR ranges the amount of mega pixels far exceeds anything of a consumer level, such as Hasselblads having 31 mega pixels.

Ok getting slightly off point, so back to mega pixels. The thing to remember is that the number of mega pixels is not the only factor to making a good quality photograph, and although it does play a part in the size a photo can be printed at it is not the end of the story.

Think of it this way a truck has an engine size of around 10 litres with 800 bhp, whilst a car may only have a 2 litre engine with around 200 bhp, but which is faster? yes the car but it has less bhp and litres. This is the same rule that goes into photography, the whole camera makes the picture not just the amount or size of the sensor, component type and quality (including the sensor) all go into making the final photograph.

If you look  at my post about Canon vs Nikon the sample shot on that post way taken with a 5 mega pixel camera, nothing by todays standard but it was a professional level DSLR, and I printed that shot at well over A1 size without any problems at all. How you may be asking yourself, simple all the components worked together to make the final photo a higher qaulity shot that I would get with a higher mega pixel consumer camera.
Also another issue with using mega pixels as a guide is that mega pixel is an indication of the size of the sensor, but not the amount of information it can hold, such as in a medium or large format camera.

Lenses

Firstly every single photographer on the planet knows that the most important thing in taking a good photograph is the glass (lens) you use, the better glass = better picture, after all everything in your photo is made up of light which has to go through the lens before getting to the camera sensor.

Whilst there are some consumer cameras with interchangable lenses, most have a lens that cant be changed, which means you are limited to the speed and focal length of the in built lens, not to mention the quality.  This one factor alone is enough to warrant buying a DSLR the variety of lenses out there means everyone will be able to get something for the type of photography they do.

Whilst this choice is great it also allows the introduction of lenses of a more professional standard, such as Canon L series lens, you can also get lenses which are better in low light, known as faster lenses, you can buy longer range zoom lenses. Infact the world is your oyster and you are limited only by budget and your imagination.

Selection of Canon Lenses

EF or EF-S

Canon has two current types of lens fittings EF and EF-S, EF is the full sized fitting used on all professional lenses, EF-S is the longer lenses used on non professional lenses. Higher end Canon cameras will only take EF lenses whilst the prosumer and below will normally take both EF and EF-S.

This is due to the shorter mirror on prosumer models as the EF-S lenses back protrudes out more than the EF lenses.

Size

Now although size is not everything, if you plan to do any form of medium or large format photography, that is shots that you plan to print at a very large scale something over 1m x 1m then this is impossible with consumer cameras.

Both medium and large format cameras require a sensor either larger than or to contain more information than a 35mm frame and you cant get this with consumer cameras.

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Canon or Nikon - yes that old chestnut

Although there is an on going debate which is better Canon or Nikon, we need to firstly remember everyone has their preference and just having a good camera doesn't make you a good photographer.

My first published photo (well outside my own company) was taken with a small casio camera.

If I go back to my very first DSLR camera it was actually a Minolta Dimage 7i, that was back around 2001 and it actually almost put me off photography for life. It took ages to shoot anything in full resolution, which meant if you took a picture of anything that was moving the first shot had to be the right one or you missed it.

Here is a sample shot taken of a train track, actually not bad image quality for only a 5 meg camera from almost 10 years ago.

shot taken with Minolta Dimage 7i

Although it took a while this camera actually produced great results and I used the above shot for an advertising bill board and it looked ace. So remember kids just because your new £200 camera has an 18 meg sensor, all sensors are not the same (more on this in a another post)

Now back to the point of this post, which is better Canon or Nikon in short the answer is neither, its all down to your personal preference, mine being Canon. Although as most people out there will know both Canon and Nikon are heavily consumer brands and both have a limited series of truely professional cameras unlike companies such as hassleblad so in truth in most professional fashion circles most people use neither Canon nor Nikon but Hassleblad.
So unless you are using a Canon 1D series or Nikon D3 series then the differences are really only down to how you use the camera, but like I said at the beginning its not the camera that takes good pictures its the photographer.

Canon 1DX

Nikon D3X

                                                         
Note - Nikon does class the D300s, D700, D3 and D3X as professional level cameras although in reality only the D3 series is on par with the Canon 1D series


Differences

Control Lay out
As most people will know there is a real difference between Canon and Nikon in how the controls are laid out, although each make has the same features they are accessed differently on a Canon to a Nikon. (more on Canon controls in a future post)

Price

Nikons in general have a better price range, I am not saying they are cheaper but you can get a Nikon professional level (by Nikon standards) camera for the same price as a Canon Prosumer one.
Image Quality

As for image quality I personally prefer Canon, although not a huge fan of the massive price difference between normal and L series (canon professional) lenses. But after my initial testing I think I prefer the Canon image quality.

Accessories

Although I am a Canon users I have to be honest and say that there are a better range of accessories for Nikons, especially where pricing comes into it, the range of lenses and flashes for the same prices bracket as Canon is far superior. But in this day you get what you pay for and although there is better choice doesn't mean they are better quality.
And thats it apart from anything else there is really no different between Canon and Nikon, its simply down to your personal preference and what you can afford or want to buy. I have seem great photos taken with both, but I am sticking with Canon as my personal weapon of choice.

One Little Gripe

OK as time has progressed and my photography moved on to more advanced areas, such as off camera lighting I have found one major pain in the bum with my Canon and that is connected to how the hot shoe connectors works, although I will talk about off camera lighting in a future post, I feel I should mention the fact here.

Canons hot shoe functions in such a way that the 2nd curtain trigger is not controlled by the central connector, this means that when using certain triggers it is impossible to shoot 2nd curtain due to the limited that the signal is sent via a series of pins, not just the centre pin. Whilst its fine to fire the trigger for most things, for 2nd curtain it doesn't work. Unfortunately, or fortunately for Nikon owners, Nikons don't work this way and are happy to use the same pins for 1st and 2nd curtain.
So this thus far is my only issue with Canon.

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