I own many types of camera and of which I do love my Canon 400D which is a DSLR camera with a 55-250mm wide angle zoom lens that have been my trusty buddy for the past 4 years or so. The memories of which using a DSLR outweighs anything you can say compared to a camera or portable camera which, do near perfect photos, but without the effects. However, despite the advantages, one of the things I don’t like to do is to be chased off a shop or location, be it a shopping center or a local grocery store just because I was lugging one of those things.
It’s BULKY and HEAVY, about the weight of my other darling, the M16 S1 rifle when mounted with the full lens, mono-pod and battery pack all in. They, the proprietors and security personnel tend to see the evil of me when I have one of those around, thinking I will be up to no good, and invading one’s privacy where the fact that I was just another customer trying to get his daily run of items with no intend of snapping any photos, just that I lug it because I do not want the camera to be stolen if I left it in the car or seriously damaged due to the humidity or extreme heat or cold snaps. Point blank goes that it is big and stands out like a sore thumb when you enter any establishment or mall.
It’s like carrying one of the old military AM SET radios from the second world war or worse treated more inhumanely than a terrorist would be treated by the law enforcement organisations. The DSLR typically weighs as heavy as 2 pounds gross with just the basic body and the kit lens attached, not to mention the battery pack and telescopic zoom or wide angle or panoramic lenses. The cost of the body ranges from $2000 onwards to as much as $20,000 for a Mach 1 or similar and that my dear friends cost as much as an entry level sedan and an IS 55-250mm Wide Angle lenses for a Nikon cost as much as $10,000 or as cheap as $800 for a Sigma or Tamron for a Canon body.
Ouch! That hurts. Really put a huge hole in the pocket. Eventually, these cameras are so much sensitive to the elements or even direct sunlight that it needs special filters and protective cases and storage facility (fridge or cabinets) for these items, and constant maintenance is needed. Canon recommends recalibration of the AI sensors every 10,000 to 50,000 shots taken and dust imaging cleaning every month or even few weeks. These cost time and money to do or get to. Compared to the bulk rate cameras, for example a Samsung camera costing about $500 can even spot a 10x optical plus 100x digital zoom on the 16 mega pixels CMOS camera which is the size of a Blackberry or your wallet and that can be kept into your side pockets without having a heartache if you damaged it. Or even a Canon IXUS or Sony Cyber shot series offer the same or like for like specs you find in a DSLR but in a compact camera (except the fancy shuttering speed control or wide angle or fish eye effect etc which are all physically done) with a very low budget. Plus that you can even spot a 32GB microSD memory card as compared to Extreme 4 CF or High Speed SD which costs about 15 times over the street version of the memory size. (4-16GB cost about $50-$200 standard compared to Extreme 4 which is about $150-$500 or more).
Newer cameras come with AGPS or GPS Locator snagged into the EXIF data so when you upload to Picassa or Facebook, the location is displayed, but hold on, the Lumix camera can do that… it can upload the photos directly over the web to you Flickr account or Facebook or any other standards. You can’t do that with a DSLR! And I’m talking about a dedicated digital camera only, with proper zoom or point shoot lens, not an iPhone or Blackberry or Android based mobile phone camera. So the choice is yours, if you take a hobby or passion for photography seriously, go for a DSLR but know the risks , otherwise, I would suggest you just go for the cheap one to lug about for your holiday or daily life.Seriously, unless you have $10,000 to waste… then go for the cheaper alternative. You can always upgrade from there.
