Better know these things if you have a DSLR

5 Things You Should Know Before Buying a DSLR Camera

By Gizbot Bureau

| Published: Thursday, March 23, 2017, 12:38 [IST]

It's a common sight these days that most of them have a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) Camera and a Facebook photography page even if there is no idea about it. Like other technologies, camera field too has it's very own nomenclature.

Better know these things if you have a DSLR

However, some might be confusing as what comes where and how it works. If that's your case, you have come to the right place. In here, we have defined the most important words, phrases, that you need to learn to operate your new DSLR.

Megapixel

The cameras take images as pixel elements, known as pixels. These digital images are made up of thousands of these tiny picture elements. Here, One megapixel is, literally, equal to one million pixels in the final image. More the pixels, the higher the image resolution.

Aperture

When it comes to photography, the term 'Aperture' is defined as an adjustable opening in a lens that allows the light to pass through. This is the main factor that controls the depth of field -- how much of the image, from foreground to background, appears sharp.

Apertures are actually measured in F-stops, which smaller the number, larger the opening. For example, f/1.4 is greater than that of f/32 here.

Depth of field

As mentioned above, the part of the image from foreground to background appears sharp. This DOF can be controlled by adjusting the aperture. While the shallow depth of field is mainly used for portraits, which captures only the subject, the deep depth of field is used for landscapes and group shots, which almost captures everything in sharp focus.

ISO

This three-letter terms denoted the sensitivity of camera in a modern dictionary. The value of ISO generally starts from 100 and goes all the way up to 25,600 or higher on a newer DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Increasing the value of the ISO denotes 'doubling the light sensitivity".

However, it is recommended that shooting at lower ISO produces a quality image, while the higher ISO helps you during low light situations but often ends up with noise. One of the thumb rules is that keep your ISO as low and play with Shutter Speed and Aperture.

Shutter speed

To make it easy to understand, shutter speed is the amount of time that your image sensor sees or exposed to the scene/subject you're trying to capture. This is one of the three sides of the exposure triangle, along with aperture and ISO, that allow us to control the brightness of our image.

Shutter speed is measured in a fraction of seconds and bigger the denominator the faster the speed. Also, the longer shutter speed allows more light to reach the image sensor, which is good for low light photography and shorter shutter speeds can freeze fast action like moving cars.