Beginners Guide to Digital SLR Cameras

There comes a time in everyone's life when he or she wonders if there is more to photography than a palm-sized block of aluminum that is the point and shoot camera stowed away in their pocket.
The compact point and shoot camera has come so far in the last ten years that it’s tempting to write off Digital SLR's as somewhat irrelevant to a lot of people’s lives, not offering enough utility to offset their quite bulky size and hefty price tag.
Folks get by now with just a Mobile phone camera, they don't even have a point and shoot!
As soon as I bought my first compact camera, a few years ago, the Canon Ixus, I was in this boat. I asked myself "what more could one possibly need?"
I told myself I would never need a Digital SLR.
For many months I even used a Phone camera with the Sony image stabiliser and at 3.2 Mega pixels this was a great little camera that almost fulfilled my needs.
How could I posibly need a Digital SLR?
Well, some time ago, I owned a Canon 35mm SLR, I used it for some years in fact, I believe the model number was A1.
The shots I took with this were very good, the drawback was obviously the film developement, or lack of the facility to perform this myself, after all, at this time you had to set up your own Dark Room, (if you had the space) which I didn't.
I was very interested in improving the pictures I took in a sort of artistic way, (not in a technical way). The point and shoot cameras at 10 Mega pixels are adequate even the most tech' people and produce excellent graphic results if you know how to operate the relevant software.
No, what I wanted was to improve the atmospheric quality of the Pic's....
After a great deal of umming and arring I dove in and bought my first Digital SLR, a Canon 1000D, not the most expensive by any means, but hey, I was just dipping my toe in the water.
How things have changed.
Digital Slr's need no such requirements as a dark room and all the gubbins that you need to print the pictures you want.
The requirements are.

• A computer.
• A quality printer.
• A reasonable knowledge of the software provided with the camera.

If you have your own software that you are pretty familiar with you can even use this.
My pictures have improved a lot, due mainly to the manual settings I can achieve with the camera and the functions available in the software, if you can't achieve the shots you want with the camera, you can certainly get what you need with the software.
When you take a good picture and learn how to use the software the limits are endless.
The conclusion then:
If you are interested in improving the pic's you take and preserving them for posterity, get yourself a Digital SLR now. Don't pay the earth, we all have fads and if this turns out to be one you won't have spent the earth.
If you aren't interested in improving your photo's, stick with your point and shoot.
For more info' and reviews on Digital SLR's visit.
The Best Digital Camera Store
Keep smiling.
Ken Trueman.