Professional Digital Cameras...
Pros and Cons

Professional Digital Cameras are very intriguing. They have the potential of taking better pictures and if you use one, other people are likely to say things like: "Wow, he must really be good."

Many manufacturers make digital SLRs, but as previously suggested, stick to Canon and Nikon for: quality, technology, and service.

Professional Digital Camera or Prosumer?
Which is best for you?

In that context, as of the end of 2005, digital SLRs can be purchased for $600 - $8,000 (Canon and Nikon, at least).

Prosumers can be had for as low as $100 (below $100, we're getting into another category that shouldn't be included in this discussion).

What are the key points to understand?

You can review the basic explanation of ISO and Noise here. As for your buying decisions, consider 2 key questions:

1. How much low-light or night shooting do you plan to do?

2. Will you be using a tripod?

If you plan on shooting night photos or other pictures in low-light situations, many prosumer digital cameras take good quality photographs at ISO 100 or 200.

If you use a tripod, you still don't need a professional digital camera to shoot low-light, dusk, or night photography.

To make your camera more "light-sensitive" and therefore able to take good pictures in lower light, you can increase the ISO to 400 or 800. This will allow you to use a faster shutter speed.

Ironically, the challenge with taking low-light photos is NOT making your digital camera light-sensitive enough. The challenge is having a fast enough shutter speed so that there won't be camera shake, and therefore the pictures will be sharp.

If you have a tripod, you can have a slow shutter speed and still capture sharp photos. But if you don't plan on always having a tripod handy AND you intend to take low-light photographs, professional digital cameras are the way to go.

The higher the ISO used, the more digital "noise" is introduced. Noise is the digital equivalent of "grain" experienced with film cameras. Generally speaking, professional digital cameras can be set on higher ISO settings (without producing unacceptable noise) than most prosumer models can.


Hot Shoe

If you plan on taking flash photographs at distances greater than 10-12 feet from your subject, an external flash unit needs to be used. And the only way an external flash unit can be used with your digital camera is to attach it to your camera's hot shoe.

Every professional digital camera has a hot shoe. Many prosumers also do, but not all of them.

Nikon and Canon cameras offer several different proprietary flash units for their cameras. In addition, certain non-Nikon and Canon flash units will work, but certain technical capabilities of the camera won't be accessible.


More Camera Features: The Double-Edged Sword

Salespeople often try to sway consumers away from professional digital cameras into prosumer models, saying that the digital SLRs have so many complicated features that they are difficult to use.

They are half correct... they do have more features. However, today's digital SLRs are typically designed to allow consumers to take pictures easily using the more automatic settings OR to use the advanced features when they are comfortable doing so.

Canon and Nikon design their professional digital cameras so you can begin simply and grow into the more complex functionality after you gain some experience. Don't let a salesperson scare you out of something that feels right.

Once you do find what you want, the best way to find great prices is to search the web...

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