Hi. I’m Philip J Walter, Senior Content Provider for ExpertPhotoTips.com. Today, we’re going to be talking about DSLR. Why does it matter? What is DSLR? A lot of people don’t know. A lot of people knew that to point and shoots really wonder about this. Do they need it? Do you want to take better photos? You need this, DSLR. What is it? Digital Single-Lens Reflex. What does that mean?

Well, pretty simple. What you see is what you get. You heard what your mother said. What you see is what you get. Not always true. In the case of DSLR or old film SLR, it’s pretty much the fact. What is it? Your lens connects to a mirror. The mirror shoots up the eyepiece. You see what your lens sees. I’ve heard this explained so many different times from about 50 different experts and you’re going to get a different answer. This is probably as simple as it gets. What you see through the lens is what you see through the viewfinder. That’s what you want. If you want great photos, if you want to know exactly what you’re going to get at that moment, you want a DSLR. For doing major photography or for doing documentary photography, you need this. You want to do great photos, you want to make great photos, you want to make great prints, you got to see what you’re filming. If you don’t, it’s a guessing game.

In this demonstration, I’m using a Canon 450D, known in the United States as Rebel XSI. Now, I want to tell everybody now, if you’re a Nikon shooter or whatever shooter you are, if you are a SLR shooter, the video is for you. It’s fine. This is my personal preference. I’ve had my head bitten off by a Nikon fan, by Olympus fans, they all say that theirs are the best. You know what, they probably are. You got to find the SLR that’s right for you. I’m using Canon. But like I said, find the one that’s right for you.

Now, most DSLRs that you’re going to buy will come with a kit. This one, I purchased about a month ago. It came with the lens which was known as a kit lens. So that’s what you’re going to need to know. You’re going to want to know what kind of body you’re going to get and what kind of lens you’re going to get.

Now this kit lens, it pretty much covers all the basic kind of photography you wanted to do. You want to do wide angles, you want to do fish eye, you’re going to need different lens. But for the most part, this kit lens is great for the beginner. Get a body with a kit lens. You’ll do yourself a favor. You don’t want to go and buy a body with the lens. You don’t want a wide angle, first off because—what’s going to happen? You don’t know how to shoot. You’re going to shoot everything in wide angle. You’re going to say, “What am I doing? What am I doing on this earth? Why, why was I born? Kill me, kill me.” You know, maybe. But the point is, start out with a kit lens, do yourself a favor.

Now, I want to point out something right now. Megapixels don’t matter. These two cameras are virtually the same when it comes to megapixels. This one is a point and shoot, this is a DSLR. This one takes really crappy photos. This one takes really crisp photos. Here is why. One of the biggest scams in photography today is the megapixel. Why? What is megapixel? Well, it’s how many pixels are in your image. Are you going to get a big image? Okay, yeah. But the question is, what is important? Image size or image quality? I have seen three megapixel images that have won awards and have sold for several thousand dollars, okay. Megapixels don’t matter. You want a good sensor. What is the image sensor size on your camera?

Now first of all, this image sensor is roughly the size of a piece of 35 millimeter film. In other words, it’s a very large sensor compared to point and shoot. Point and shoot is roughly the size—the sensor is the size of your pinkie or less your thumbnail. So bang for your buck, big sensor, megapixels don’t matter, sharpness. How much grain are you going to get in your image? Find this out. Don’t believe what the salesman at your local Best Buy tells you or wherever you buy your camera. Do research. Find out. Go on to Flickr and type in the model number or the model type of your camera and search the images. Amazing. It’s almost like acid test, right there. What are these images going to look like? Now of course, a lot of these images are going to be taken by professionals and you might not get the same results but you know you can. So do research. Find out.

Let’s take a step back and see what we’ve learned so far. Megapixels, does it matter? Not really. Camera type, what’s right for you? Research your camera, check Flickr. And if it’s all possible, borrow one from a friend. You’ll be surprised how many people own these DSLR is and don’t really use them. So ask around. See if you can borrow one, see if you can rent one. Go to a camera store, rent these things. It’s a big investment. Is it worth it? I think so.

Coming up next week, we’re going to find out how to use our basic camera settings and how to start taking great photos. Get off those auto settings. From DSLR magic in ExpertPhotoTips.com, I’m Philip J. Walter saying, with a little help from me and a little from yourself, you’ll start taking great photos in no time.