What is an SLR? Well, the letters simply stand for “Single Lens Reflex.” What is that? Well, that technically means that there is one lens that is used for both taking the photo and also look through that lens to frame the photo. In other words, there is not a separate lens that you look through to make the photo. Furthermore, an SLR (or D-SLR for a Digital SLR) has a lens that is removable! That is right, you can take off the lens and put another one on. Why would you want to do that? Well, you can put on lenses that have a zoom, or are wide angle, or will help you achieve all kinds of special effects!

In addition to interchangeable lenses, the SLR camera also offers many other features. You can basically control virtually every possible aspect of how your photo is exposed, focused and taken. You can control the shutter speed, the aperture, the speed of the “film” and many other aspects of the photo. These days, D-SLRs also offer you the chance to let the camera make these settings too, making your D-SLR almost like having a higher quality Point and Shoot camera.

If you are a person who likes to grow into a hobby, learn technical aspects of the hobby and such, a D-SLR is probably going to be the way to go. These days, the price of an entry level D-SLR is not that much higher than a decent Point and Shoot anyway, so why not go all the way?

If you are like me, though, you’ll want both! After all, that D-SLR gear can be bulky to carry around!