Before the introduction of the SLR camera which stands for single lens reflex all the classical cameras had two optical light paths. Moreover, the cameras which are not equipped with SLR feature perform very poorly while capturing photos in low light and while using low speed films.

Till the 90s, the cameras equipped with the SLR feature were the most advanced cameras. But, the recent developments have left even the digital SLR cameras far behind. Today, the latest compact digital cameras are equipped with LCD. Today, such digital cameras are available at flexible prices in the market. The photographers can manually adjust the focus in the SLR cameras and they can also be automatically focused by the auto focus feature. The digital SLR cameras have a larger sensor in comparison to many other brands. This helps capture quality photographs even in low light. When the sensitivity of the camera is larger it helps increase the quality of the captured photographs. The sensitivity of the SLR camera is pretty large. The range of the digital SLR is 100 -1600 and it depicts the sensitivity of the digital SLR.

Moreover, the quality of the SLR cameras has further increased over the years. Now, this camera functions faster. Moreover, you can interchange the lenses of the digital SLR cameras.

In comparison to typical cameras the digital SLR’s weight and size are more. Moreover, the prises of the lenses of the SLR camera may be more than that of the camera itself.

The digital SLR cameras help the users know immediately whether the photographs they have taken are of good quality.

Digital SLR Vs Compact Point and Shoot Camera

All in all, there are three main categories of digital cameras: the Digital SLR camera, the Compact Point and Shoot camera and the High Performance Digital Point and Shoot.

The Digital SLR camera boasts with a high mega pixel, the lowest being 6.3 and extending higher up. The Digital SLR features also interchangeable lenses. Moreover, the Compact Point and Shoot camera is highly flexible and easy to handle, as it is smaller in size than the SLR cameras. The cheapest Compact Point and Shoot camera can be found at $130-$150. The superior SLR camera prices start from $1000.

All things considered, the Digital SLR camera is highly recommended for specialists and enthusiast photographers, while the Compact camera is suitable for amateurs.

Tips on Creating Awesome Night Vision Digital SLR Photos

Today’s digital SLR cameras offer the photographer full control of aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings enabling the capture of excellent usable images in low light that were not otherwise possible. However, in many situations such as photographing scenes at night with very little ambient light, or telephoto photography at night at a distance, even the best digital SLR cameras simply do not have sufficient sensitivity to capture adequate images. This article provides important guidelines for producing awesome night-time photos when using a night vision module-enabled digital SLR camera.

By adding a night vision module to a digital SLR camera, night turns into day. For situations such as photographing scenes at night with very little ambient light, or telephoto photography at night at a distance, even the best digital SLR camera will be unable to produce adequate photographs without blur.

AstroScope transforms dark scenes into bright, high resolution images that can be easily photographed without the need for additional lighting or longer exposure times. The image is then focused onto the internal detector of the digital SLR camera.

Exposure Mode

In low light, you’ll want to manually open the lens iris to permit the most light to fall on the night vision module’s sensitive photocathode.

Shorter exposure times may provide some improvement if excessive motion is a concern but could unnecessarily darken the image due to the reduction of light being acquired from the night vision module’s image intensifier. Since increasing the gain will amplify the low light level images, even with a night vision module, lower light scenes will become visible. As with all electronic circuits at high gain, image noise can degrade image quality.

Manual Focus

Since night vision modules are generally grainy, the image grain can confuse the SLR camera’s focus sensors.

Use Stabilized Lenses

A camera’s image stabilization feature permits the photographer to use slower shutter speeds without resulting in blur due to camera shake. When using a night vision module, the main disadvantage of the digital stabilization is that the image is blurred on the input of the night vision module resulting in some blur on the intensified output image.

Lens Aperture

The basics still apply for night vision intensified low-light photography. Since the night vision module is merely a light amplifier, if there is no light from the stars and sky or from city lights reflecting from clouds, the night vision module will not be effective. Unlike some digital camera sensors which have some near-infrared response, night vision modules are most sensitive to the near infrared wavelength range and consequently these light sources can significantly enhance the night-time image and render night photography possible despite the lack of sufficient visible illumination.

Image Cropping

For covert night vision photography, don’t forget to disable all camera lighting and sound functions.