David Coveney

Do You Need an SLR?

OK, I’ve always said that you don’t need a fancy camera to take good pictures.  All that a good camera does is add flexibility and choice, but so long as there’s a decent amount of light (and even then, not necessarily that much) a compact or a smartphone camera could well be adequate.

This lunchtime I went for a walk but was dismayed to find my trusty Lumix LX3 wasn’t in my backpack.  I decided I should still try and take pictures, however.  The light was flat, the weather uninspiring, but let’s try with the smartphone camera and see what comes up.

I’m going to have a go at doing this as a regular feature.  Just to challenge my abilities with composition and creativity.

I will admit to one thing, however – I’ve post-processed.  I usually post pictures up as they came out of the camera, but sometimes you need to tweak at least a little – and smartphone cameras are pretty limited in their controls for contrast and colour.

Comments

Posted: 27 January, 2012 at 1:46 PM

Alan Williamson says:

I see your point (I take a lot of quick pictures with the iPhone 4S these days) but it’s not always about the overall ‘quality’ of the shot. DSLRs give a lot of fine-grained manual control over your pictures, depth of field is miles ahead of a point and shoot, interchangeable lenses etc. etc. You also get to learn about how cameras actually work, which I personally find very rewarding!

I’ve heard cameras like the Sony NEX-5 produce very competitive results to a DSLR in a much smaller package…

Reply

Posted: 7 February, 2013 at 1:11 PM

David Coveney says:

Hi Alan – I agree. I have an SLR, the little Lumix, and the phone and I use and enjoy them all for various reasons. And as everyone always seems to say – the best camera is the one you have with you.

I’m currently wondering about one of the new system cameras – good sized sensors, cracking lenses, good DoF. All very interesting. I just need to be rich so I can afford them!

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