Getting The Most From D-SLR Camera Systems

When you buy a compact digital camera, you buy a camera. But when you buy a digital SLR, you buy into a whole camera system. That SLR body accepts a wide range of lenses, flash units, viewfinder attachments, optional power sources and other accessories, all of which add tremendous versatility. So to get the most out of your purchase, you should look at the whole system, not just a particular camera model, when deciding which D-SLR to purchase.    

Mid-level D-SLRs ($1,000-$1,700) offer even better performance, more features and more rugged construction. They’re good choices for photographers who can’t afford (or don’t want to lug around) a heavy-duty pro model. Some pros use a mid-level D-SLR as a backup to their pro models.

Naturally, top-of-the-line pro D-SLRs offer the best performance, the most features and the most rugged build. They’re also relatively heavy, and most cost more than $3,000. No question, they’re the most capable D-SLRs—the dream cameras of many—but they’re not the best choices for everyone. They’re designed specifically for working pros, and casual photographers will find them too complicated.

Lenses
Each D-SLR manufacturer offers a wide range of interchangeable lenses for its bodies. Additionally, independent lens manufacturers offer a variety of optics for film and digital SLRs in two basic categories: lower-priced alternatives to lenses in the camera manufacturers’ lines and lenses not available from the camera manufacturers. While the camera manufacturers’ lenses can be used only on their cameras, the independent lensmakers’ wares generally are available in mounts to fit most popular SLRs. The question is, how well do they integrate with your particular D-SLR and its digital features? Check the lens maker’s Website for potential compatibility issues, especially with newer camera bodies.

With the notable exceptions of the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II and EOS 5D, all D-SLRs currently in production have image sensors that are smaller than the 36x24mm dimensions of a 35mm film frame. The majority use “APS-C” image sensors, so-called because they’re about the same size as an Advanced Photo System “C-format” image frame, around 23.6x15.8mm. These smaller sensors “crop” into the image produced by the lens, resulting in a “telephoto” effect: when a 100mm lens is used on one of these D-SLRs, it produces about the framing of a 150mm lens on a 35mm SLR. This is good news for telephoto fans (a 100-300mm zoom in effect becomes a 150-450mm), but not so good for wide-angle fans (a 28mm wide-angle becomes a 42mm not-so-wide-angle).

Camera manufacturers and independent lens makers have taken advantage of these smaller image sensors by producing a line of lenses designed specifically for them. Since the lenses don’t have to produce as large an image circle, they can be smaller and work more efficiently with the smaller image sensor. But these lenses can’t be used on film cameras (or full-frame D-SLRs)  because they’ll vignette. This category includes Canon EF-S, Nikon DX, Pentax DA, Sigma DC, Tamron Di II and Tokina DX lenses.

To solve the wide-angle problem, among these designed-for-digital lenses are some really wide ones, including a 10-22mm zoom from Canon, a 10-20mm zoom from Sigma, an 11-18mm zoom from Tamron and 12-24mm zooms from Nikon, Pentax and Tokina. These provide photographers using APS-C-sensor D-SLRs with 35mm focal-length equivalents in the 15-18mm range for true wide-angle shooting capability.

There are also lenses that can be used with film or digital SLRs, but are optimized for use with D-SLRs, employing special coatings to counteract reflections from the shiny surfaces of digital sensor assemblies and providing enhanced correction of distortion and aberrations. The Sigma DG lenses and Tamron Di series fall into this category.

All Olympus Zuiko Digital lenses were designed specifically for digital photography and can be used only on Four Thirds System D-SLRs (which at this writing comprise the Olympus E-1, EVOLT E-330 and EVOLT E-500, and the discontinued EVOLT E-300).

One thing remains the same when choosing a lens for a D-SLR: what do you need to do what you want to do photographically? If you like to photograph birds and other wildlife, you’ll want a long lens or a zoom with supertelephoto capabilities. If you like to do portraits, a lens in the 85-105mm range (on a 35mm camera) produces the most natural perspective at a shooting distance that provides a good head size; this works out to 55-70mm for an APS-C-sensor D-SLR. If you like to shoot in dim available light, you’ll want fast lenses—those with maximum apertures of ƒ/2.8 or larger (bearing in mind that fast lenses generally cost a lot more than slower ones). Think about what you want to photograph, then get the lens(es) that allow you to do it right.


Flash
Built-in flash is handy—it means you’ll always have enough light to photograph nearby subjects, it’s easy to carry, and you can’t forget to bring it. But built-in flash units don’t produce the most attractive lighting for many subjects, and they’re limited in range.

All SLR manufacturers offer accessory electronic flash units to fit their D-SLRs, often a whole line of units. The accessory units provide more power than built-in units and offer features not available in built-in units, such as tilting and swiveling capability for bounce flash, a number of power settings, “strobe” effects, and most importantly, off-camera capability. You can move an accessory flash unit off-camera for a more attractive lighting angle and fire it (and additional off-camera flash units) via extension sync cords or even wirelessly with some systems, all the while retaining automatic TTL control of exposure. With the latest D-SLRs and flash units, you can even adjust settings and activate/deactivate off-camera units from a controller on the camera.
 
Software
While highest-quality JPEG images produced by today’s D-SLRs are excellent, and it’s great to have the option of shooting smaller file sizes when memory-card space is a factor, to get the best image quality, consider shooting RAW images. Why? For one thing, RAW images are either uncompressed or losslessly compressed, while JPEGs are lossy compressed; thus, RAW images have no compression artifacts. RAW images are 16-bit while JPEGs are 8-bit; thus, RAW images contain a greater range of tones. With JPEG images, settings applied in-camera (sharpening, saturation, white balance, exposure compensation, etc.) are part of the image; trying to change any of them later during image editing can adversely affect image quality. With RAW images, the camera settings/parameters are stored separately from the image data; you can change them using the RAW conversion software and then apply them to the image with no adverse effect on image quality.

The drawbacks of RAW images are that they take up more space on memory cards than compressed JPEGs, and you must convert them using special software before you can use them in your image-editing program. All digital cameras that can shoot RAW images (and this includes all D-SLRs) come with the manufacturer’s RAW conversion software, at least offering basic RAW conversion capability. Some manufacturers also offer higher-end RAW conversion software that provides more editing options. The higher-end software comes with some cameras, while it’s an extra-cost option for others.


Recent versions of Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements include Adobe’s Camera Raw RAW-image converter (Camera Raw is also available as a plug-in for earlier versions of Photoshop). There are also stand-alone converters, such as Phase One’s Capture One and Pixmantec’s RawShooter. Apple’s new Aperture software, DxO’s Optics Pro and Digital Light & Color’s Picture Window 4.0 include a RAW converter, too. These programs offer the advantage of being able to open RAW files from many camera brands and models, but be aware that they might not be able to open RAW images from newer cameras until the software manufacturer adds those via updates. Also, each RAW converter uses its own RAW-processing algorithms to render its own rendition of a given RAW image; in theory, the camera manufacturer’s RAW converter should give the best results with its RAW files. Some D-SLR users have more than one RAW conversion program, trying each to find the one that works best for a particular image.

RAW conversion programs aren’t the only software available for D-SLRs. There’s also remote-operation software. Canon EOS Capture allows you to control operation of Canon D-SLRs and some compact digital cameras from your computer (a desktop for studio operation, a laptop for field work), while Olympus Studio software does the same for Olympus E-series D-SLRs. Nikon Capture software, in conjunction with an optional wireless transmitter, allows you to control some D-SLR settings from your computer wirelessly.

There are also programs such as DxO Optics Pro, which corrects lens problems such as distortion, softness, vignetting, color fringing and astigmatism, reduces image noise, enhances shadow and highlight detail in RAW images, and more, with images made using supported digital cameras and lenses.

Firmware
As its name suggests, firmware fits somewhere between hardware (camera bodies, lenses, etc.) and software (programs that come on disks). Each digital camera body contains its manufacturer’s firmware, which basically is “permanent” software that directs camera functions. There are no firmware options to choose among—you get what the manufacturer puts in the camera.


Manufacturers regularly post firmware updates on their Websites, however, and it’s important to check for these for your camera (and in some cases, lenses) because they allow the camera to utilize new advances (such as larger-capacity memory cards that didn’t exist when the camera was introduced), add features, and fix glitches that are discovered after the product’s introduction (improving reliability and performance). Updating the firmware is free and involves downloading the update file from the Website, then connecting the camera to the computer and following the provided directions to install the update in the camera.

Current System Overviews
Canon
• 6 D-SLR bodies: The entry-level EOS Digital Rebel XT (8.0 megapixels); mid-range EOS 20D (8.2 MP) and EOS 30D (8.2 MP); full-frame-sensor EOS 5D (12.8 MP); and pro-level EOS-1Ds Mark II (16.7 MP) and EOS-1D Mark II N (8.2 MP, 8.5 fps).

• 61 lenses (57 AF, 4 MF): From 10-22mm to 600mm (35mm equivalent focal-length range of 16-960mm with the EOS Digital Rebel XT, 20D and 30D; 13-780mm with EOS-1D Mark II N; and 10-600mm with 5D and EOS-1Ds Mark II), including 15 Image Stabilizer (IS) lenses, three manual-focus tilt-shift lenses, a 135mm ƒ/2.8 soft-focus lens, three 1:1 macro lenses, and 1.4x and 2x teleconverters.

• Flash: Three accessory units with ISO 100 guide numbers up to 190 (in feet), plus a Macro Ring Light and a Macro Twin Lite, and a wireless Speedlite Transmitter.

• Other: Optional battery grips, AC adapters, extension tubes, interchangeable focusing screens for pro models, angle finders, remote controls, Data Verification Kit for higher-end models, wireless file transmitter.

Nikon
• 5 D-SLR bodies: The entry-level D50 (6.1 megapixels), mid-level D70s (6.1 MP) and D200 (10.2 MP), and pro-level D2x (12.4 MP) and D2Hs (4.1 MP, 8 fps).


• 62 lenses (50 AF, 12 MF): From 10.5mm fisheye to 600mm (35mm equivalent focal-length range of 16-900mm), including seven Vibration Reduction (VR) lenses, two manual-focus perspective-control (PC) lenses, three 1:1 macro lenses, and 1.4x, 1.7x and 2x teleconverters.

• Flash: Three accessory units with ISO 100 guide numbers up to 185 (in feet), plus remote Speedlight, wireless close-up Speedlight systems and two wireless Speedlight controllers.

• Other: Optional power supplies, AC adapters, extension tubes, interchangeable focusing screens for pro models, angle finders, remote controls, wireless data transmitter.

Olympus
• 3 D-SLR bodies: the entry-level EVOLT D-500 (8 megapixels), live-view EVOLT E-330 (7.5 megapixels), and pro-level E-1 (5 MP).

• 14 lenses: From 8mm ƒ/3.5 fisheye to 300mm ƒ/2.8 telephoto (35mm equivalent focal-length range of 16-600mm), zooms from 7-14mm ƒ/4.0 to 90-250mm ƒ/2.8, 35mm and 50mm macro lenses, OM adapter (allows use of manual-focus OM-system lenses on E-series D-SLRs), plus a 25mm extension tube and 1.4x teleconverter.

• Flash: Three accessory units with ISO 100 guide numbers up to 164 (in feet), plus ring flash and twin flash for macro work, flash bracket, high-voltage battery pack for flash.

• Other: Optional power supplies, grip strap, underwater housing system for the EVOLT E-330. All Olympus E-system D-SLR camera bodies have a built-in Supersonic Wave Filter that vibrates dust off the image sensor every time you switch on the camera.

Pentax
• 2 D-SLR bodies: The entry-level *istDL (6.1 megapixels) and next-level *istD S2 (6.1 MP).


• 50 lenses (37 AF, 13 MF): from 14mm ƒ/2.8 to 1200mm ƒ/8.0 (35mm equivalent focal-length range of 21-1800mm), zooms from 10-17mm ƒ/3.5-4.5 fisheye to 250-600mm ƒ/5.6, plus 1.4x and 2x teleconverters.

• Flash: Several accessory flash units with ISO 100 guide numbers up to 164 (in feet), macro flash unit, off-camera and wireless off-camera accessories.

• Other: Power supplies, AC adapter, remote controls, interchangeable focusing screens (DS2 only), right-angle finder, viewfinder magnifier.