DIGITAL CAMERAS: SLR or Compact?!?!?

Question

I'm a very keen teen photographer and i'm good at it! i have a fujifilm finepix S6500fd. its a digital SLR. my friend however, who originally had a 35mm (non-digital) just got a new samsung compact digital camera: 10.1megapixels.

i feel like c**p now because they don't even like photography and have a better camera to me?!?!?!? is this true?

SO MY REAL QUESTION IS:

ARE NORMAL DIGITAL SLR'S BETTER THAN DIGITAL COMPACTS EVEN THOUGH COMPACTS HAVE MORE MEGA PIXELS?

I don't want to think i've spent £270 on a SLR camera thats actually worse than my friends compact which is £200 cheaper!

is it better or worse? what was i paying the extra money for?

thanks for reading this and please answer if you know, i really appreciate all answers and i will look at them all, thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Sorry to tell you this but the S6500fd is not a DSLR. The S6500fd is what's known as a "bridge" camera which are basically advanced point and shoot cameras with a big zoom lens.

Just because your friend has a 10.1MP compact doesn't mean it's any better than yours. Both cameras have their respective pros and cons. Your camera, for example, can control the aperture, focus, and shutter speed. It also packs a 10.7x zoom lens and a focus ring among many other features. The compact, on the other hand, probably has a bigger LCD and a slimmer profile. If you're focused on photography you shouldn't be worried about what camera the guy next to you is holding and whether it's better than yours or not.

Besides, I doubt either of you print any of your pictures. If you do megapixels doesn't mean much after 6MP.

Answer 2

Contrary to popular belief, it's the person behind the camera that takes the picture, not the camera.  The camera is simply the recording device.  If you're good at choosing an image, you could put some blank film in an empty shoe box with a small hole in it and get a better picture than the world's best camera can take in inexperienced hands.  It is you that takes the picture, not your camera.  Just imagine how envious your friend will be when you are constantly getting better results with a cheaper camera!

Answer 3

Yes because more important than megapixel count is sensor size and the cameras internal firmware and processor. DSLR cameras have a sensor that is many times the size of that seen in most point and shoot cameras. More light gets to each pixel so each pixel can give better quality. You would not be spending more for less even if the MP count was less Go to places like DPreview and kenrockwell.com.

Answer 4

The size of the lens is perhaps the most important thing to getting a clear image.  Small compacts suffer from aberration and vignetting effects, however slight, whereas cameras with large glass lenses will take clearer photographs simply due to the sheer size of the lens and sensor - more light beams means more detail.  That's been my experience with digital anyway.  Megapixel counts are not as important as the size of the lens.

That said, my compact Canon Ixus has a much better low-light ability than my Nikon hybrid, which quite frankly is rubbish even in a dimly-lit room, otherwise the Nikon blows the Canon away for clarity.  This is down to the way the cameras focus, and the respective firmware programming.

Answer 5

Whoa! You should know by now that really good photographers can take good pictures even with a box camera. It's always satisfying to see the guy with the cheaper kit get one up on the other with the all-singing and dancing shiny toys.

Is the compact Samsung better than your Fuji SLR? Pixel counts are not the most important criterion. Samsung makes good digital cameras but their own lenses are usually not as sharp as those made by Zeiss, Canon, Leica, etc. So a high pixel count may not give better definition if the lens let you down.

Are 'normal' DSLR better than compacts? Depends. The reason people buy a SLR is for the interchangeable lens system. If you don't need that, why bother? Many compacts have good zooms (from 28mm equivalent) and Sony's DSC-W300 for example has over 13 megapixels! It's only £180 and so much easier to pack on a holiday. The lens is very good and I can think of some DSLR that can't match it. The problem with the technology is that things are improving all the time and what seems good value today will leave you feel sick as a parrot a few weeks later. Try not to feel cheated because that's how it is and there's always something cheaper and better tomorrow.