Digital SLR Camera Price
Also common to cameras in this category is built-in flash for shooting in low light. The integrated flash pops up from the camera body (Figure 4) when needed, either automatically, based on shutter speed, or manually when you want to add a bit of fill light to an image. Although not as flexible or powerful as an external flash, you can’t beat the convenience of having one always available.
Figure 4. Pop-up flash is standard on all entry-level and most mid-level cameras, but not the pro-level bodies.
Entry-level dSLR cameras normally allow you to capture images at a rate of 3 frames per second, making it easier to photograph moving objects. Most have enough onboard memory to record a dozen or more images before filling the memory buffer and slowing down in order to record the images to your memory card (see the “Memory Cards” sidebar).
Is It All About the Megapixel?A few years ago, a camera with 3 or 4 megapixels (million pixels), would have been considered top of the line. A camera with this resolution could provide a good quality 5 x 7 print. With every new round of cameras, the number of pixels has increased, leading consumers to believe it’s all about the megapixel. After all, more pixels means more resolution, and more resolution means more detail and bigger prints right? The problem, though, is not so much the number of pixels. It’s the size of those pixels on the sensor. The sensors didn’t get any larger; they just squeezed more pixels onto them, making the pixels smaller and closer together. This makes the sensor more sensitive to light and, therefore, more vulnerable to noise problems. A dSLR gets around this in most cases because the sensor size is so much larger than what you have in the typical digicam. A 6- to 8-megapixel dSLR is capable of high-quality prints in the 11 x 14 inches or larger rangesomething you couldn’t do easily with a digicam. The more megapixels listed for a dSLR indicates potentially more image detail, but unless you plan on producing oversize prints at high resolutions, anything in the 6- to 10-megapixel range should be fine. |
Mid-level or “Prosumer” Cameras
At the next level is the group of cameras in the sub-$2,000 range, such as the Canon EOS 30D (Figure 5) and the Nikon D200. These are full-featured bodies that offer larger buffer sizes. The buffer is the capacity for temporarily storing images before the camera has to write them to the memory card, which creates a slight delay when taking a batch of pictures in a row. This level of camera offers a faster frame-capture rate than entry-level cameras, often around 5 images per second.
Figure 5. The Canon 30D is an example of the mid-level range. At less than $1,500, you get a number of enhancements over the entry-level without sacrificing ease of use.
June 9th, 2008 at 4:48 am
I read similar article also named SLR Camera Price | Digital Camera Master, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me