Why you don't need a DSLR !!

 

Take a look at my photos here. 99% of these photos were taken with a mega zoom camera -Panasonic Fz-18 and a few with compact Canon A520.They may not be very professional looking but I find them exceptionally good for a not so serious photographer.And this blog is for people like those  and it is not for professional photographers or for people who have lot of spare money.

Since you are ready to buy a DSLR I can safely assume that you will be comfortable carrying a bigger camera. Mega zoom cameras are not pocket cameras and their dimensions vary.For example dimensions of FZ-18 are 118 x 75 x 89 mm (4.6 x 3 x 3.5 in).

Advantages of Mega Zoom Cameras

Its next to impossible for a DSLR to provide features available in a mega zoom camera unless you are ready to spend thousands of dollars and ready to carry boat load of equipments. And if you are ready to do that then this post is not for you.

If you want an all rounder camera without breaking your bank or back ...read on and I will show you how a mega zoom camera with decent optics can give you amazing advantages.

Wide to Mega Zoom :Many people with basic kit lens DSLRs fail to capture moments which falls beyond their zoom.Most of the kit lenses are 18 mm - 55 mm with crop factor of 1.5 that turns out to be 27 mm wide to 82.5 zoom.This is like 3x zoom. Whereas a mega zoom camera can provide wide angle to 27 mm to 520 mm zoom in a single package.This feature provides some amazing photography opportunities

Take a look at this wide angle photo :

And this one at the telephoto end of my camera:

Macro :Little world of insects and flowers if captured properly can amaze you.These mega zoom cameras provide excellent close up photography opportunities.I find macro capabilities of these cameras much superior to basic kit lenses of DSLRs.Moreover you get fast and accurate live view in these camera which will be very helpful during those awkwardly angled photography sessions.

In built Image Stabilization:Two biggest DSLR manufactures (Canon & Nikon) do not provide image stabilization (IS) in camera body but you need to buy image stabilized lenses  to avoid blurring while taking hand held photography.And of course these lenses are pretty expensive.IS provided by mega zoom cameras is fantastic.

RAW format photos : A raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor. This feature used to be a DSLR only thingy but not anylonger Panasonic FZ-18/28 allows you to take RAW photos and an amazing free program to edit these RAW photos.Read its review here.

Auto bracketed Images :DSLRs do allow you to take these photos but some of the entry level DSLRs do not have theis feature.Among other things lack of this feature will prevent you from making HDR photos.

 

Live View : Makes a camera easy to use.Can hand over your camera and any tom dick harry will be able to take a decent picture.Many camera manufactures are now trying to put this feature in DSLR cameras but I guess the response time of such live view is still very slow and unusable in most of the cases.

There are some inherent disadvantages of mega zoom cameras but I guess thats a topic of a different blog :). If you want to explore most of the vistas which photography provides a mega zoom gives best bang for the buck.Full manual controls and some amazing little features to experiment all along your beautiful photographic journey ...... best of luck.