Gift Guide #1 - DSLR Cameras
DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras are sure to be one of the hottest gifts this year. With prices dropping and features and quality increasing, many people will be moving to this platform from their point-and-shoot cameras.
One mistake many people make, however, is that they believe that a better camera will give them better pictures. This may be true, but to a very small degree. And depending on what kind of camera you are moving up from, it may not be true at all. For example, if a person is moving to a DSLR from a high quality point-and-shoot, the image quality may be so similar that it is hard to tell the difference. So why spend the money to move move up to a DSLR? It’s about the potential. DSLR’s offer the potential to take better pictures if you know how.
If someone in your family is getting a DSLR this holiday season, the best gift you can give them is knowledge. I recently purchased my first DSLR. My first pictures did not look any better than the pictures I had taken with my point-and-shoot. Then, on Thanksgiving day, one of our guests was a professional photographer. I spent about an hour with him pointing out and explaining the features on my new camera. He gave me a very abbreviated lesson on photography and some of the “rules”. My pictures were at least 50% better because of that. (Thanks John!) That discussion sparked my interest in learning more. There is nothing like actually getting better at something that ignites the fire to want to improve.
It’s that time of year. Traffic sucks. The stores suck. The weather sucks. Oh yeah, it’s the holiday season. That time of year where we try to figure out what to buy friends and family. Some people are great at this, others, well, suck.