A dSLR works like a camera

A dSLR works like a camera

Another reason why digital SLRs have improved performance is that they’re

easier to use, so you, as the photographer, can work quickly while you shoot.

The manufacturers configure most point-and-shoot cameras for consumers

who simply want to grab a quick snapshot, instead of investing some artistry

in creating a photograph.

Moreover, point-and-shoot cameras tend to be designed by an engineer who

did a really, really good job adding photo capabilities to the vendor’s cellphone

line last year, and who obviously must be the best choice to cobble

together a full-fledged digital camera. Indeed, the line between cell-phone

cameras and digital snapshot cameras is blurring all the time. (I predicted a

few years ago that soon photographers would be able to get only two kinds of

cameras: cell-phone-integrated point-and-shoot cameras and digital SLRs.)

Like a cell phone, non-SLR digital cameras tend to have most of the controls

tucked away out of sight in the menu system, where the average consumer

never has to see them and where the photo enthusiast has to hunt for them.

Digital SLRs, on the other hand, are always designed by a team of engineers

who have extensive photographic experience. They know which controls a

photographer absolutely needs and which controls they can bury away in the

menus because you access those controls only when setting up the camera

and maybe once a month (if that) thereafter.

Digital SLR designers know that you don’t want to go three levels deep into a

menu to set the ISO sensitivity or adjust white (color) balance for the type of

illumination that you’re using. You want to press an ISO or a WB (white balance)

key and dial in the setting without giving it much thought. You don’t

want to activate an onscreen display to set shutter speed or aperture — you

want to have separate dials for each. Nature intended that you zoom and

manually focus your camera by twisting a ring on the lens — not by pressing

a little lever and letting a motor adjust the lens at its own pace.

Simply having a camera that operates like a camera, rather than like a DVD

player, makes your picture-taking much easier and faster.

Article From : Digital SLR Cameras and Photography For Dummies 3rd Ed. (Book)