Digital Camera Master

For most people, price is the most important issue when looking at a camera. Until a couple of years ago, you’d have to budget well over $1,000 to purchase a digital SLR and basic lens. Today a full-featured camera can be found for less than $600. Cameras in this entry-level category, such as the Canon EOS Digital Rebel line and the Olympus E Series, are optimized for ease of use while still giving you a number of advanced features and access to the full line of lenses.

Note

You’ll quickly discover that the camera body is often the least expensive part of your purchase. Lenses, particularly high-quality ones, can easily exceed the price of the body. The good news is that you can use your expensive lenses on a new body if you upgrade later.

Entry-level Cameras

At the entry-level end of the dSLR price scale, which I’m defining as costing $700 and less, you’ll find a number of cameras, often available with a kit lens, which is typically a zoom lens of normal to telephoto length. These cameras are typically in the 6- to 8-megapixel range and offer a number of automatic settings designed to produce good results without having to learn and master all the manual options and controls. Although excellent images can definitely be captured with these cameras, the photographer does sacrifice a significant amount of creative control.

Common to all cameras in this range are image settings for different modes, like Sports, Portrait, Landscape, and Automatic, as you see in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Most entry-level cameras offer a full set of image settings designed to help you get good results with minimal fuss.

These entry-level cameras are all designed to be easy to use, which makes them a good transition stage from a point-and-shoot. They’re commonly lightweight and fairly smallespecially compared to their pro-level counterparts. At its most basic, you can turn an entry-level dSLR camera on and use it as a point-and-shoot, without knowing anything about photography, by leaving the camera on its Program (P) or Auto (A) mode for automatic shutter-speed and aperture settings. When you’re ready to move beyond Program, the other mode settings common to these camerastypically Sports, Landscape, Portrait, and Macrowill help you learn more about exposure while still getting the best possible results.