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Ok, so you've found the one digital camera that appeals most to you in your category which will give you more creative control. However, you're also dithering between this and a slightly more serious model that's chockful of features. Which should you buy? It depends. Before you decide on the best format that will suit your way of life, ask yourself how you will be using the digital camera, whether it's your first, second or upgrade purchase.
Digital camera types: Digital SLR | Advanced compact | Prosumer
 Digital SLR
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Having your very own single-lens reflex camera has long been every photographer's fantasy. Due to their high prices, most photo enthusiasts have tended to bypass digital SLRs. But in recent years, Canon and other camera makers have introduced cheaper, more accessible models to their digital SLR lines, with the price range of some models starting from as low as S$1,999 (US$1,140). While digital SLRs allow you to have greater freedom over your pictures, you must be comfortable with your own skills if you want to exploit the features of your SLR to the fullest.
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Advantages |
| Interchangeable lenses which offer offer an almost endless variety of wide angle, telephoto and zoom lens shots |
| Extensive photographic controls as well as
autofocus features |
| No parallax in extreme close-ups |
| Can be equipped with powerful flash units
to light subjects 60-70ft away |
| Advanced metering gives more precise
focusing, especially in low light |
| No shutter lag time, with typical speed ranges averaging 2 seconds to 1/2000th of a second |
| Depth-of-field preview |
| Image sensor is larger, so pixels are larger and therefore less sensitive to color fringing and other noise |
| Because dSLR owners are expected to shoot loads of photos, these cameras generally offer speedy USB 2.0 or FireWire connectivity |
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Disadvantages |
| Relatively expensive although cost has
dropped considerably |
| Much heavier and bulkier than compact
point-and-shoots |
| Complicated controls for beginners; photographer
has to make more decisions |
| High-res images require capital outlay for
bigger memory cards |
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Advanced compact
Point-and-shoot compacts, on the other hand, allow users to take
pictures as simply as pointing the viewfinder at the scene and pushing a
button to take an image. Some, however, are now offering more advanced
features such as zoom, fill-in flash and macro photography.
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Advantages |
| Many high-end compact digicams offer
advanced performance with point-and-shoot ease
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| More compact and lightweight |
| Extremely affordable |
| User-friendly |
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Disadvantages |
| Lens usually not interchangeable
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| Onboard flashes have a limited range, usually
about 10-15ft |
| Limited manual functions |
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Prosumer
Prosumers, or professional consumer-type, cameras form the middle ground between advanced point-and-shoot units and digital SLRs. This category caters to photographers who want high-end features in a camera but are not willing to pay for an expensive high-end SLR. However, the price gap between a prosumer camera and a digital SLR is slowly closing.
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Advantages |
| Prosumers offer
most of the controls, features and sophisticated metering and focus systems that high-end digital SLRs do, for relatively less money
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| Hot shoe usually provided |
| Offers high resolutions and powerful zooms |
| Due to increased buffer size, some prosumers approach dSLRs in terms of shot-to-shot speed |
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Disadvantages |
| More expensive than point-and-shoots
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| Lens usually not interchangeable although
some models offer the option
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| Typically does not have super-high-resolution CCDs, unlike dSLRs |
Due to large zooms, prosumers are often equipped with an electronic viewfinder instead of an optical viewfinder, which relies on battery power
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Editor: Juniper Foo
Writers: Michelle Chew, Reuben Lee, Eric Steinman
A CNETAsia Special Report brought to you by Canon
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