When you buy a new digital camera, you are going to fall into a certain categories. A professional photographer, a serious amateur or finally someone who just wants to use a camera every now and again, say at family parties or on vacation. If you fall into categories one or two then you should be looking at using a SLR camera.

The reason for getting an SLR camera is that it is a better quality camera for the serious photographer. Now although your point and shoot camera is increasing in quality these daysbecause of the amount of mega pixels you can get in them, you would still be advised to go with SLR, for reasons we will explain.

One of the first reasons is because you can take a far more artistic picture with an SLR camera. How this is possible compared to a point and shoot camera is because you have a lot more manual options, which gives you more control over the kind of picture you want to produce. For example, you want to get a perfect shot in an instant, now with a p&s camera the lag time on your shutter can be anywhere from 2-3 seconds, whilst when you compare that against a SLR camera which has a minuscule lag time on the shutter that is probably not even 1 second, which one is going to get the image? The SLR of course.

One of the other advantages of using an SLR camera, is the ability to change the lenses. This, of course comes in exceptionally handy if you are taking a shot of something that is in the distance, as it gives you the ability to change to a zoom lens and get the perfect shot. With a p&s camera yes you can zoom, but because you cannot change the lens you end out with a distorted image.

There are many other positive things about SLR cameras, such as long battery life, the ability to take fast and continuous shots to name but a few, but are there any negatives?

Well yes, but again it has to be put into the perspective of what you want to use the camera for. For instance probably the main downside of the SLR is the size of the camera. They are quite bulky so it really is not something you are going to use if you just want a quick photo on your holidays as you are not really going to want to carry it around all day. Unlike your p&s where you can pop the camera in your pocket or bag. Also with that size comes the weight. Although they are not mega heavy, you will notice the difference in carrying a SLR camera around for a long time compared to carrying a p&s camera. And the final downside is price. Although prices have come down in years, getting a good quality SLR camera is still not inexpensive, especially when compared to a point and shoot. But as I said before these downsides have to be put into perspective and if you are a seriousphotographer, then really they are not negatives.