SLR cameras

Compact Cameras

Bridge Cameras

Why start with a camera you'll outgrow? 

Single Lens Reflex cameras (SLRs) let you look right through the lens that takes the picture. What you see is what you get. When you use a telephoto lens the image in the viewfinder is truly magnified.

Advantages of an SLR:

• Bigger, brighter viewfinder
• Easier to compose pictures precisely, especially close-ups and telephoto shots
• Better low-light capability. Lens keep most or all of their light-gathering ability, even when you zoom. 
• Longer range with flash
• Better action-stopping (most have shutter speeds of 1/2000th of a second or higher
• Interchangeable lenses let you choose extreme wide-angle, telephoto or macro (close-up)
• Separate flashguns are really the best cure for "red eye"
• Easy to use filters and optical special effects devices
• can be used with a telescope or microscope

Disadvantages of an SLR:

• Often costs more
• Bulkier
• More complicated
• The lens that comes with it (usually a 28-80mm zoom) may not have as long a zoom range as a compact camera
• If you don't buy and carry accessories, you don't get all the advantages of the better camera.

Compact or Point-and-Shoot cameras

Sometimes called PHD cameras (Push Here, Dummy), these cameras are definitely easier to use - but they're not just for dummies! The viewfinder does not look through the lens that makes the picture, so the camera can be a lot smaller. Most incorporate a zoom lens, built-in flash, motor drive and automatic focusing. Therefore you don't have to carry anything else.

Even professional photographers often carry a compact camera as a backup, or when they go someplace where they don't want to be burdened with the weight of their SLR.

Good compact cameras have excellent lenses and autofocus mechanisms. Within their design limits, they can make pictures that are just as good as an SLR.

Advantages of a compact camera:

• Everything is built into one piece, so you can't forget your flashgun or zoom lens.
• Automatically sets the film speed and exposure
• Flash is automatic if needed (on better models you can override it)

Disadvantages of a compact camera:

• Not as good for extreme closeups, because you're not looking through the lens that takes the picture. The difference between what your eye sees and what the film sees is called parallax..
• Red eye is caused by having the flash close to the lens. A compact camera can't get the built-in flash very far from the lens.
• Lenses are less sensitive to light than the lenses on SLR cameras. Many compact camera lenses "slow down" to about f11 when they are zoomed to their most powerful setting.
• Flash range may be very short, particularly with slower films
• Can't use filters, cable releases, other accessories
• Doesn't stop action as well because it doesn't have a high shutter speed

"Bridge" cameras

Bridge cameras "bridge the gap" between an SLR camera and a compact camera. These are single lens reflexes in which the lens is not interchangeable. 

The permanently-mounted zoom lens usually has a wide range. On the Olympus IS-30DLX, for example, the lens has a 28-110mm zoom range. 

The built-in flash sits high to reduce red-eye, and the zoom lens doesn't lose speed as it zooms. That means the flash range is longer.

As of this writing, Olympus is the only manufacturer that makes a bridge camera.

SLR Cameras | Compact Cameras | Bridge Cameras 

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