Moe’s B2B World

The market for the digital SLR camera is growing rapidly. The IDC report titled 2007 Worldwide Digital Camera Market Share Review pointed out that digital SLR cameras accounted for 7.5 million of the 131 million digital cameras sold. It is no surprise that such big brands as Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and Sony led the way in total digital SLR camera sales. Canon and Nikon alone account for about 80% of the digital SLR market. Sony and Olympus account for another 12% of the market.

The IDC report showed that Canon had been running alone atop the digital SLR camera market, but Nikon closed the gap, thanks to such popular models as the Nikon D300 and the Nikon D40x. In Japan, Nikon surpassed Canon in total digital SLR camera sales. “Nikon has always been the strong leader among professional photographers” says Minneapolis photographer Bob Dale.

Digital SLR, also known as dSLR, describes a camera with a digital single lens reflex. Single lens reflex describes the path light that travels through the lens to a mirror, which forwards the light to a viewfinder.

In other words, there is light coming in through the lens, which is then sent by a mirror placed at a 90 degree angle to the pentaprism. When you take a picture, it is as simple as the mirror being lifted to allow the shutter to open. The light then is captured by the image sensor behind the shutter instead of being reflected by the mirror.

If you’re looking to buy a digital SLR camera, you’ll have plenty of choices. The most popular brands today are Canon, Nikon, Panasonic and Pentax. It’s not a coincidence that these manufacturers are also the top manufacturers of 35mm film SLR cameras.

Canon has long been known for the quality of its cameras. Currently, the Canon EOS line of cameras is among the best lines of digital SLR cameras on the market. It consistently earns high praise from consumers for being simple, having plenty of options, and providing great pictures.

With the Canon EOS line of digital SLR cameras, you will typically get about 10.1 megapixels of resolution. This is true of the Canon Digital Rebel series as well.

You will generally find Canons at the top of digital SLR camera review lists. Whether these reviews are compiled by Canon owners or by product testers, the results tend to favor Canon digital SLR cameras.

Nikon is another respected manufacturer of digital SLR cameras. The recent Nikon D series of digital SLR cameras has carried on the strong reputation for Nikon cameras as being among the best in the world.

The Nikon D300 is the top of the Nikon D series line. With the Nikon D300 you get a large LCD screen to look at in place of the viewfinder. With a price at about $1,700, this is a good entry-level professional digital SLR camera. It is a good investment for those who need to take high quality digital photos.

If you’re a novice digital photographer or you want a less expensive Nikon digital camera, there’s the Nikon D40, which has a 6.1 megapixel that is just perfect for most users. It has a compact design too, making it ideal for those who don’t want to carry a clunky camera around. You can get this digital SLR anywhere from $450 to $650. “It’s a great choice for doing travel photography” says professional digital photographer Bob Dale.

Nikon also makes the Nikon Coolpix P5100 for those who are looking for an inexpensive digital SLR that can take good pictures. This camera can often be found at less than $300, which is simply astonishing for a digital SLR that takes good pictures. Its main features are those that make it simple to use, such as automatic zooming, automatic focusing, and automatic exposure adjustment. It has a big LCD screen for framing and reviewing pictures.

If you want an affordable digital zoom camera, go with any of the Panasonic Lumix DMC cameras. Panasonic introduced the first in its Lumix DMC series in 2001 and since then has come out with over 60 models with 1.9 to 10.1 megapixels and zoom capabilities between 10x to 12.5x.

Most experts agree that Panasonic digital cameras are easy to transport and take great digital photos. For the camera buff who doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on a good quality camera, set your sights on any of the Panasonic Lumix DMC cameras. These cameras cost $400 and below.

Pentax digital SLR cameras are well-regarded in the photography community. Pentax has been a respected name in SLR photography since the 35mm camera. Pentax continues its tradition of earning respect in the digital SLR community.

You can purchase Pentax digital SLR cameras for either casual photography or professional photography. The Pentax K lined of digital SLR cameras and the Pentax Optio line of digital SLR cameras both get good reviews. With these Pentax lines, you will get good digital photos and you can expect the standard sets of features found on modern digital SLR cameras.

As you can see, there are a lot of fine digital SLR cameras on the market. There are good digital SLR options for just about any serious amateur or professional photographer’s budget. Basically, it comes down to a trade off between what features you need and how much you want to pay.

A few of the other things you’ll want to keep in mind when comparing digital SLR options are battery life, battery cost, camera warranty, and storage media options. But mainly, you will want to get a memory card that can hold 1,000 or more high resolution photos. After you invest a great deal of money in a camera, you will want to be sure you won’t run out of storage space when you’re out shooting photos and you visualize that perfect picture.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 2:36 am and is filed under Education.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.