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The AF SLR The Most Versatile Camera
It would simplify photographers' lives tremendously if one camera could do it all. But different tasks call for different cameras. For example, if an assignment requires producing really big blow-ups, the larger negatives and transparencies produced by big medium- and large-format cameras are an advantage. If you do architectural photography or tabletop work, where perspective control and lots of depth of field are needed, field and view cameras are ideal. And if you need a camera you can tuck unobtrusively in a pocket and take anywhere, a compact digital, 35mm or Advanced Photo System camera is just the ticket.
There is one camera type that can handle a wider range of tasks than any other, however. For the working photographer who has to shoot a wide variety of subjects and situations—or the serious amateur shooter who has a wide variety of photographic interests—the autofocus 35mm or digital single-lens reflex camera is the way to go. The wide range of available lens focal lengths lets you handle subjects from shy wildlife and distant sports action to tiny macro subjects. The wide range of shutter speeds lets you shoot fast action and in the dark. There are also several AF medium-format SLRs, which offer similar advantages, although they are somewhat bulkier and generally have more limited lens lines—but they do produce larger, finer-grained images. This guide, though, is about 35mm and digital cameras.
AF SLRs are the most versatile camera type available today. While the AF 35mm SLR has "ruled the roost" for serious shooters, today there are also more than a dozen digital SLRs on the market that are equally versatile (albeit somewhat more costly). Professional and serious amateur photographers use higher-end AF SLRs for photojournalism, advertising, sports action, portraits, close-ups, wildlife, landscapes, special effects...pretty much everything. These photographers want full manual control when they need it, but also love the speed and convenience of automatic focusing, exposure control and advance. And the AF SLR gives them all that and more. But every AF SLR on the market also offers fully automatic operation, making it as easy to use as any point-and-shoot camera.
While the earliest AF 35mm SLRs had serious performance limitations, technology has come a long way in a nearly two decades. Today, even the entry-level models provide quick and accurate autofocusing in most shooting situations. And the top-end pro models perform well enough to suit working pros—in fact, professional sports and wildlife shooters and photojournalists have taken to them in tremendous numbers. The same can be said for the digital SLRs, which in most cases are now into their second or third generations.
Each AF SLR model offers something for everyone from point-and-shooter to serious photographer. All provide fully automatic point-and-shoot operation—even the top-end pro models. But they also let you set everything yourself when you want to do that. So as a newcomer grows in photographic skills and ambitions, he or she won't have to buy a new camera to continue his or her photographic growth.
One huge advantage of the AF SLR is through-the-lens (TTL) viewing—what you see in the viewfinder is what you'll get on the film, regardless of lens focal length or shooting distance. There are no parallax problems, and you can see the effects of filters and confirm focus because what you see in the viewfinder is the actual image formed by the lens.
For many, the biggest advantage of the AF SLR is the focal-length versatility provided by its interchangeable lenses. AF SLRs allow you to remove the lens that's on the camera and replace it with another—a fisheye, superwide-angle, supertelephoto, or a wide selection of zooms. Many manufacturers also offer specialty lenses: true 1:1 macro lenses in normal, short-tele and telephoto focal lengths; soft-focus lenses; shift lenses; lenses with built-in image stabilizers; and more. Whatever your focal-length need, AF SLRs can meet it—no other camera type offers such a great range of lens options. And lenses for AF SLRs are also generally much faster than those built into point-and-shoot compact cameras (especially zoom lenses), allowing you to shoot hand-held in dimmer light. The downside, of course, is that you have to buy each lens you want separately. Photographers on a tight budget often buy one or two wide-range zoom lenses, such as a 28–105mm and a 100–300mm, or a 28–300mm, while pros generally prefer high-end fast single-focal-length lenses.
There are, of course, manual-focus SLRs, too. But the AF SLRs can do everything the manual-focus SLRs can do—includng focus manually. But with the AF SLR, you also have quick, convenient autofocusing whenver you want it. So we think they're the best choice for most photographers.
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