What does this stand for and what are the benefits of this kind of camera as opposed to a digital camera?
Also how much am I looking at for a good beginners one that will last a few years? And which brand? an slr camera can be digital or film.
the consumer cameras that are used by many people are the point-and-shoot cameras. they can be digital or film.
slr cameras are the ones that are used by professional and amateur photographers. You can adjust everything depending on the camera like the aprerture, shutterspeed, depth of field, etc. even change the lenses. These are the bulky ones and very expensive especially digital slrs.
if you're serious on photography then i recommend an SLR coz if you just buy those point-and-shoot cameras, you don't have the control when it comes to lighting and everything. those poin-and-shoot cameras are flash dependent when theres no sufficient lighting. but with slrs, there are so much possibilites if you have a tripod.
if you have the money, try a canonEOS400.... it's user-friendly, one of its features. Never tried one though... but it's in the review i read. SLR mean Single Lens Reflex. Basically a camera that you can buy different types of filters and lenses for. I recommend Canon. If you want to use film then get one of these if not then get a digital camera. "SLR" stands for "Single Lens Reflex", and, (very basically) it means that when you look into the eyepiece you are looking at EXACTLY the image that is passing through the lens at the front of the camera. Stands for Single Lens Reflex, which you can look up on Wikipedia to see a description, diagram, etc. Your camera can only be as good as it's lens. The difference between an SLR lens and snapshot digital camera lens is like the difference between filet mignon and a Krystal burger. The best quality lenses come from Nikon and Canon. An awesome starter camera is a Nikon D50. Nice and simple to use, but it has all the settings needed. If you don't have Photoshop already I recommend getting that also. Single Lens Reflex. You are viewing the subject through the same apperature as the picture is taken! In short, what you see is what you get! Single Lens Reflex
Technically digital cameras qualify under that moniker, but what sets and SLR apart is that it has interchangable lenses.
DSLR is a Digital Single Lens Reflex.
SLR is a film Single Lens Reflex.
They are large in size, but far better in quality than a little Digital camera.
The lenses are vastly superior (but expensive, a 75-300mm f/4.5 lens is like $170).
Canon makes a film one, the Rebel K2 at $200
Canon makes a digital one, the EOS XT at $700 (8MP) or the XTI at $900 (10 MP) with lens
Nikon makes an entry level DSLR at $600 with the D-40 (6 MP).
DSLR use 36 bit technology for color (little digital cameras in the under $500 range use 24 bit technology).
DSLR saves in RAW format (no compression, TARGA or BMP images about 30 MB in size) or JPEG
With an SLR or DSLR you are looking at the subject (picture area) through a small opening at the top that looks through the lens with mirros and prisms.
With a tiny under $400 digital camera you are either looking through a lousey little view finder at the top that cuts off heads and arms because it doesn't show what you are actually taking or you look through the LCD screen and are seeing right through the lens via the screen.
Nikon and Canon 35mm film and digital cameras made in the last two years share the same lenses and accessories so you can live in both the film world and the digital work with two camera bodies and on set of lenses, bellows, filters, etc. single lens reflex .....better image quality if u learn how to use it....coz it has larger sensor and plenty of manual settings so whenever u get bad results it's the user fault .....don't ever blame the camera coz it's designed to put the user in control of everything...cheers | 