SLR Cameras
By momiecat
@momiecat (997)
United States
August 1, 2009 10:24am CST
I love to take pictures. I have a Sony digital camera but it is not an SLR. My husband has an SLR and it always seems to take beautiful pictures. It is funny, though, as I enjoy photography more than he does. I would like to be able to understand (in simple terms) the principles behind f-stops and all the different settings for a higher-end camera. I have tried to have husband explain it to me but I just don't get it. Can anyone help?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@divkris (1156)
• India
1 Aug 09
Hey i have an SLR (Nikon FM10) and a digi-cam but i love taking pix with the SLR and as you said the pictures are really beautiful.
The concept is very very simple - f-stop or the aperture determines the amount of light the camera is allowing, so that the negative is exposed. The usual lenses have f-stops that start from 3.5 to 11.5 or so. However, there are lenses that range from less than 3.5.
The concept is very simple - the lower the number(i.e 3.5f, 5f)the bigger is the opening of the aperture, the bigger the number (11.5f, 13.0f)the smaller the opening. So if you have a bigger aperture opening more light gets onto the film and the smaller opening allows less light.
If you are shooting at a low light a bigger opening can be of help (say 5 or 3.5) but if there is too much light you will have to reduce the opening to 11.5 or so.
hope this is of some use to you. Look for f-stops in photography websites. :)
@momiecat (997)
• United States
1 Aug 09
Wow, you make it sound so simple. I appreciate the things that you have said. I will check out the "photography website". I would love to be able to learn how to use an SLR. I could borrow my husband's camera and be proficient at using it. It is so much more fun to take pictures these day and get instant results of what your photo is going to look like. I like your avatar. Did you draw that yourself? If so, you really have talent. I love kitties. I have sent you a friend request. Congratulations on reaching over 500 posts. I am almost there and can't wait. I want to be able to post pictures. Have a nice day.
@divkris (1156)
• India
1 Aug 09
Thank you - I'm happy it made things easy for you. It may sound a little technical but it is that way 
BTW, All the best and hope you reach your 500th post asap and thank you because i did not know that the photo option was activated only now - but I'm happy that i can copy paste things now 
BTW, All the best and hope you reach your 500th post asap and thank you because i did not know that the photo option was activated only now - but I'm happy that i can copy paste things now 
@jpso138 (7851)
• Philippines
4 Jan 12
SLR cameras have are more complicated as compared to those digital cameras. But I was wondering if its DSLR or just SLR you are talking about. Anyway, you can certainly do a lot of things with SLR or DSLR as compared to the point and shoot digital cameras. I would be quite long to explain everything here. I have started learning photography on my own. I am not an expert so I did a lot of research online on how to use it effectively. I recommend you go to youtube and search "digital photography one on one. There are a lot of episodes on this and it discuss a lot of things in using SLR or DSLR which you may find useful. Try to check it out.
@luntian_grace (1373)
• Philippines
7 Aug 09
yeah! slrs are way better than P&S. i can be in control over it. i hope i can have one though. but as of now i just use my p&s so pictures. f-stops is the one responsible on which field to be focus. like if you want that the subject will stand to you use the smallest f-stop. what will happen is that the subject that you are focusing will look very sharp while the others are very blur.
