| One of my hobbies is photography. Now I\'m no | | | | seen to be believed. At 10.1MP you have a serious |
| professional but I enjoy taking good professional | | | | camera that gives you nigh on professional results. |
| quality photos. I had to weigh up whether to go | | | | Many Professionals that have the top end of the |
| for a compact digital camera or a Digital SLR. I | | | | Canon EOS range at £5,000 plus would tell you |
| was fortunate back in the eighties to own a | | | | different. Remember they have to justify the |
| 35mm SLR camera. The picture quality was | | | | £5000 plus price tag so they will find the tiniest |
| fantastic. Much better than that of a compact | | | | detail different but to you and me the pictures |
| camera. The ability to alter settings and change | | | | look near enough the same. |
| lenses to pull subjects closer or move them away | | | | I went to Turkey in the summer and the |
| was far superior to that of the compact 35mm | | | | pictures I took with my camera I could never |
| camera.Fast forward to today and not a lot has | | | | have achieved with a compact camera. The |
| changed. The Digital compact cameras quality has | | | | scenery was a photographers dream and I |
| gained a great deal on the Digital SLR but is still | | | | managed to fill the 4GB card with top quality |
| behind, in my opinion. | | | | pictures. The ability to capture in RAW is also a |
| Both benefit in the fact you can see the result | | | | bonus fo the semi-serious photographer. With |
| instantly after the shot has been taken but the | | | | RAW there is no compression like with JPEG and |
| DLSR is far superior in the ability to change that | | | | it\'s as it says the RAW picture.You have the |
| shot, on the spot and in so many ways. One thing | | | | option to change the white balance when your |
| with the compacts is the lack of depth of field. | | | | back on the computer. Yes you can bodge it up |
| You take the picture and the whole picture will try | | | | when it\'s a JPEG but is no where near as |
| it\'s best to be in focus. With DSLR you can have | | | | effective as RAW. Give it go yourself. |
| the subject in focus and blur the background | | | | The darkroom side of it is up to you. I use |
| which creates very simple but effective results.I | | | | Adobe Photoshop. It cost approx £500 but is |
| use a DSLR - Canon EOS 400D. I have had this | | | | what the pros use. There are loads of magazines |
| for 18 months so has now been surpassed in the | | | | out there with tips on how to use Photoshop but |
| Canon range. It doesn\'t have \'Live View\' which | | | | I recommend getting a decent book on it. It is a |
| means you have to compose the shot through | | | | huge piece of software but you can make |
| the view finder. However the newer Canons have | | | | dreamy portraits and Andy Warhole popart with a |
| this now. It came with a 18mm-55mm standard | | | | little practice and tuition. There is also Photoshop |
| Canon lens but also in the package was a Tamron | | | | Elements for under £100 but I understand that |
| 200mm Zoom Lens. I bought a Lowepro Slingshot | | | | this is a scaled down version of the Professional |
| A100W bag and SanDisk 4GB Compact Flash | | | | version and would be good for the begginer to |
| Card, separately. | | | | intermediate. |
| Out of the box you can stick it on auto and | | | | Your friends and family might scoff at you with |
| never leave that setting if you want to. However | | | | your bigger camera and bag and some might say |
| this defeats the object of having so much power | | | | \'what do you want all that for when you can get |
| and scope over your shots by using the auto | | | | a camera that fits in your pocket\'. Believe me |
| setting. Remember it\'s digital so you can | | | | when they see your laptop slideshow through an |
| experiment over and over again with different | | | | HDTV they will be green with envy and |
| settings until you get it bang on. If you were to | | | | clambering to copy your photos or even buy |
| leave it on auto forever you might as well buy a | | | | them. |
| compact camera.The clarity of the shot has to be | | | | |