DSLR questions

i have a prosumer camera and strobe and know bugger all about DSLR but would like to know more these may be silly questions to the DSLR owners but here goes, I found out that you have to view thru the viewfinder to see the subject (unlike point and shoot with lcd screen)and i also found out you can buy attachments to increase the view (it must be a real pain to look thru a normal viewfinder with a mask on underwater)and someone told me that there is a new DSLR comming out with a lcd screen is this true ,and someone (who does not have a DSLR ) said that you can not control your zoom with undrewater housings as you have to manualy zoom by hand,i find this hard to swollow, what are the main advantages of a DSLR to a prosumer camera, there a webpage that has answers to these questions i know to you these are probably stupid questions but if you don"t ask you will never know, and i would like he truth from the people who own and us DSLR and the wealth of knowledge on this forum that has been of great help to me of late everyday thanks for your time

i have a prosumer camera and strobe and know bugger all about DSLR but would like to know more these may be silly questions to the DSLR owners but here goes, I found out that you have to view thru the viewfinder to see the subject (unlike point and shoot with lcd screen)and i also found out you can buy attachments to increase the view (it must be a real pain to look thru a normal viewfinder with a mask on underwater)and someone told me that there is a new DSLR comming out with a lcd screen is this true ,and someone (who does not have a DSLR ) said that you can not control your zoom with undrewater housings as you have to manualy zoom by hand,i find this hard to swollow, what are the main advantages of a DSLR to a prosumer camera, there a webpage that has answers to these questions i know to you these are probably stupid questions but if you don"t ask you will never know, and i would like he truth from the people who own and us DSLR and the wealth of knowledge on this forum that has been of great help to me of late everyday thanks for your time

Could you separate your questions a bit next time. Now everything runs on and on and is difficult to read.

Viewfinder

For most of the cameras and housings, yes. The image through the viewfinder is quite small, but it is definitaly doable. I use a setup with a canon 20d in an ikelite housing. The viewfinder image is quite small, and you have to move your eyes a bit to see the information as well. There are viewfinder extensionas available, but these cost as much as an ikelite housing. For me it is workable..

Life feed LCD screen

Then you have to check out the Olympus slr camera line, although the newest multi K canon has a similar feature...

Manual zoom

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Most SLR users use either a prima macro lens (that is either a 60mm or 100mm lens, not with a zoom) a prime wide angle lens or zoom lens or a general purpose zoom.

Just as above water, you have to zoom yourself (but the autofocus gets the focussing) turning a ring on the lens. In most housings that is coupled with knob on the outside. So it works just as well under water as on hte surface.

hope this helps,

Gerard

The main advantages of a DLSR are

Speed You have to let the camaera focus first but this is faster than most compacts, then when you press the shutter release it takes the picture in an instant. Most compacts have shutter lag which means that you miss the peak of action. A different sort of speed is the ISO and DSLRs have higher usable ISO settings that mean better low light performance, often useful underwater.

Quality The sensor is physically bigger in a DSLR this means less noise in the picture. A 10Mp DSLR will produce a better result than a 10Mp compact. In fact I'd say that a 6Mp DSLR will produce a better picture than a 10Mp compact because the sensor and the lens is better quality.

Control Some compacts give full manual control some don't. All DSLRs give full control of the exposure and ISO settings allowing more creative photography and sometimes just allowing you to override the camera when the lighting is confusing the meter.

I'm not sure I'm qualified to speak to this issue but I can imagine that higher ISOs with less noise make a big difference. IE turn most P$S to ISO 400-800 and the sensor really gets noisy. Most DSLR's will handle that ISO level very well. Additionally the choice of excellent glass will allow more use of natural lighting. I know that f8 in P&S's is supposed to be equal of f22 in a DSLR but I can tell you from experience that I'll never get the DOF that people with DSLR's are getting on here. Just doesn't happen in my world.

The main advantages of a DLSR are

 

Speed You have to let the camaera focus first but this is faster than most compacts, then when you press the shutter release it takes the picture in an instant. Most compacts have shutter lag which means that you miss the peak of action. A different sort of speed is the ISO and DSLRs have higher usable ISO settings that mean better low light performance, often useful underwater.

 

Quality The sensor is physically bigger in a DSLR this means less noise in the picture. A 10Mp DSLR will produce a better result than a 10Mp compact. In fact I'd say that a 6Mp DSLR will produce a better picture than a 10Mp compact because the sensor and the lens is better quality.

 

Control Some compacts give full manual control some don't. All DSLRs give full control of the exposure and ISO settings allowing more creative photography and sometimes just allowing you to override the camera when the lighting is confusing the meter.

I don't entirely agree. Most decent compact cameras nowadays don't have shutter lag. Autofocus on a DSLR may still be faster, or not. In terms of control, many compact cameras have full control, so I don't see how this is an issue between compacts and DSLRs. In fact, my Fuji F810 has a better interface in some ways than my Nikon D80 -- for example, it shows the ISO at all times (and even highlights it at ISO800); the D80's ISO display/change method is slightly inane. The D80 on the other hand has two control wheels versus only one on the F810 -- very nice for full manual control.

The lens is a huge difference.

Another advantage of DSLRs, though, is control of DOF. This allows blurring of backgrounds, so the subjects stand out much better. There are a lot of shots which are completely impossible to take with a compact camera for this reason. The low DOF also probably helps a bit with particles in the water and perhaps backscatter.

I would say that the reason to shoot a DSLR rather than compact is 'speed'.

That is the speed at which you can gather a RAW file. DSLRs buffer files so that you are not held up while attempting to get the next shot. They also more-or-less take a picture the moment you press the button. I am still waiting for the compact that has no lag time although I hear lots of claims.

Why shoot a RAW file? If you do not shoot RAW files you are completely missing the point of digital photography!

The level of control makes a big difference, but at the price of a bigger, heavier and more awkward system.

I switched from a 5 megapixel prosumer with an LCD viewfinder to a 6 megapixel DSLR. No competition, the DSLR images blow away the prosumer ones. My DSLR is notorious for a small, dim viewfinder, but it still works well. The battery life is great, because I only use the LCD to review images. The optical quality of the lenses is fantastic. I sometimes think that you can even see the difference on web images!

Prosumer:

DSLR:

Tim

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