Case Study - Should you buy a DSLR or Point and Shoot Digital Camera?

Case Study – Week 2

Should you buy a DSLR or Point and Shoot Digital Camera?

Siti Noor Photo has registered a short course on photography and she has decided to purchase a digital camera for the course. She already has the Point and Shoot Digital camera and now she is in dilemma whether she should buy the Digital Single‐ Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera. Followings is her thought

“I’m using a compact point and shoot digital camera and i would like to ask it is worth it to upgrade to a DSLR camera? How huge a difference do DSLR cameras make compared to compact point and shoot digital camera? What matters the most when buying a digital camera? Is it the image quality, the brand name or the features offered by the camera?.... Oh friends… please assist me on this…”

As students in Visual Technology Production course, discuss in your team this case study and prepare the information in your Blog to assist Siti to solve her dilemma.

Specification	DIGITAL SINGLE LENS REFLEX ( DSLR )	POINT AND SHOOT DIGITAL CAMERA ( PSDG )
Size of Image / Image Quality	The larger size of image sensors in DSLR which allows for larger pixel sizes.	Mgapixels are NOT everything, high Megapixels ( 10 Magapixels ) in PSDC is not necessarily has good as a DSLR with only low Megapixels ( 8 Megapixels ). It depends on the image sensor in the camera. Te image sensor used in PSDC is generally much smaller than the image sensor used in a DSLR. This means that the pixels on a PSDC is much smaller and collect fewer photons. PSDC also need to work at slower ISO levels which means that they produce ‘noisier’ shots.
Interchangeable Lenses	The advantages to interchangeable lenses are :- a.       larger range of focal lengths and specialties (shift, macro, etc.) are available than you are likely to find on any fixed lens camera. b.       Each lens can be designed for a specific kind of working situations and specialties without the compromises a generalist fixed lens has to be designed for. c.        You also can upgrade your camera body without losing any investment you have made in additional lenses if your new camera choice is in the same family as your old camera.	The lenses on these cameras can't be removed, which limits their versatility.
Depth Of Field	The depth of field of DSLR able to puts everything from foreground to background in focus through to nice blurry backgrounds. A large lens aperture (in this case f/2.8) narrows the depth of field in the image, causing the background to be blurred. A small lens aperture (in this case f/22) widens the depth of field, allowing background details to be resolved. Large (wide) apertures produce very shallow depth of field, while small apertures make everything sharp from close to the camera to the horizon. The illustrations above show just how important the lens aperture can be in determining what is and isn't sharp in a picture.	PSDC doesn’t have to ability to control the depth of field of photos but it has an automatic systems for setting the exposure options.
Accurate Composition	There are some of rules which are only able create by the DSLR like:- a.       Disappearing line into corner. If there is strong line in the scene and make it disappear at the corner it seems make the composition stronger. b.       Movement into Majority of frame To put the moving object in the larger part of frame (more space in front of vehicle and clear compare to background). c.        Foreground and background composition By shallow the depth of field able to increase the effectiveness of the image.	PSDC also able to create a lot of  photos with good composition by using the rules like rules of third, anti left right symmetry, rules of symmetry and monotonous content but all these able to create by DSLR too. PSDC unable to produce all the good composition image which are able to produce by DSLR.
Price	Significantly more expensive compare to PSDC even though DSLR price has decrease each and every year.	It is cheap if compare to DSLR.
Size and Weight	It is twice the size and bulk of PSDC.	It able to fit into the pocket of user. It is easy and convenient to bring to anywhere.

Since Siti Noor has registered a short course of photography, what she wants is not point and shoot only. She should have a DSLR so that she able to control the image that she need. PSDC is can’t satisfied her need anymore.