How To Explain SLR Advantage to Non-Photographer?

So just out of curiosity... how many here have attested to the fact (here or elsewhere) that your equipment doesn't make you take good photographs? :lmao:
It doesn't "make" you take good photos, but it sure can help in certain circumstances if you know how to use it.

"make", "enable", "allow", "help" what ever. I understand how it works, trust me. I'm just now getting my year+ old DSLR to take as good of pictures as I was getting with a P/S that had 12x optical Zeiss glass (which wasn't great by many standards). And I had to spend more for a new lens than I paid for the body! ;)

I was just pointing out how irony can be so ironic. :mrgreen:
 
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So just out of curiosity... how many here have attested to the fact (here or elsewhere) that your equipment doesn't make you take good photographs? :lmao:

I must have the dumbest camera gear going. If I don't point it in the right direction, it doesn't know where to look. If I don't show it the correct place to focus, it goes and focuses on whatever's close, whatever's bright, and sometimes, on nothing whatsoever. It has a meter, and the best program that those Japanese gnomes could put into it, and do you think it can get the right setting? NO! the shutter's speed is too fast, or too slow, the aperture is either showing too much background, or not enough... I tell you, it flunked mindreading 101. Heck, I've even showed it Bryce Peterson's books on composition, and it still gets the horizon lines crooked, and completely inappropriate perspective. Like a little child, really. If I don't tell it exactly what to do, it just sits there and pouts. And don't get me started on how it doesn't want to play nice with its neighbour, the flash....
 
Anyone have any advice, or maybe a link to a good site that would help me explain SLR vs P&S to a non-photographer? Here's what I mean:

...... he said "How far will that thing zoom in?" When I focused on a car's license plate across the parking lot, he said, "My camera will get closer than that." "Why would you want to carry around that big thing when my camera will do a better job?" He went on to say that his camera "...was just about the best you can buy..."


Thanks!
Obviously, since he has "....just about the best you can buy..." you don't need to explain anything to him.

You might ask him why he thinks pro photographers buy cameras that don't even include a lens, that cost somewhere between $7000 D3x

and $42,000 Hasselblad H4D-60 Digital SLR Camera 70480533 - B&H Photo Video if his is "...just about the best you can buy..." ;)
 
Just tell him you look more legit.

If he argues, hit him across his face with your telephoto lens.

That'll show him!
 
I get this at work all the time (Best Buy) There are P&S cameras that have more optical zoom than slrs typically have. the canon sx210 has 14x zoom. but I tell people that the sensor size is dramatically different which allows an slr to take better quality pictures. as well as having full manual control and better glass
 
The next time someone comments on the size of your camera, just tell them you're compensating for something. That's what I do. If they say their P&S is about the best there is, tell them you're sure it is about the best P&S there is, tell them you don't know anything about P&S cameras. Whenever someone approaches me about my camera when I'm out I usually try and do two things 1) I try to talk to them on their level of understanding (i.e. people who like take cute pics with P&S cameras, or who just figured out what the half moon is for on their mode dial), 2)I try to complement them on their gear and point out the strong suits of their equipment, how sometimes I wish my big clunky DSLR could do that. I know that usually poeple are either looking to brag about their gear or are just excited to talk to a "real" photographer, and I humor them the way an astrophysicist would humor me if I wanted to talk about cosmology. Chances are they may turn out to be good people, even if they feel a need to validate their ego.
 
The next time someone comments on the size of your camera, just tell them you're compensating for something. That's what I do. If they say their P&S is about the best there is, tell them you're sure it is about the best P&S there is, tell them you don't know anything about P&S cameras. Whenever someone approaches me about my camera when I'm out I usually try and do two things 1) I try to talk to them on their level of understanding (i.e. people who like take cute pics with P&S cameras, or who just figured out what the half moon is for on their mode dial), 2)I try to complement them on their gear and point out the strong suits of their equipment, how sometimes I wish my big clunky DSLR could do that. I know that usually poeple are either looking to brag about their gear or are just excited to talk to a "real" photographer, and I humor them the way an astrophysicist would humor me if I wanted to talk about cosmology. Chances are they may turn out to be good people, even if they feel a need to validate their ego.

We all need to validate our egos from time to time. Well played. :thumbup:
 
All he needs to know is 5-7 fps and off to shooting in less than 1 second.
 
Just tell him, "My camera can beat up your camera!"
 
Just tell him, "My camera can beat up your camera!"
:lol: Or you can tell him your camera gets the chicks. ;)
Back in my single days I had a roommate who's good friend was an amateur photog. He would take his camera with him to bars and tell chicks he shot for Maxim or some other mag, seemed to work for him. :D
 
Just tell him, "My camera can beat up your camera!"
:lol: Or you can tell him your camera gets the chicks. ;)
Back in my single days I had a roommate who's good friend was an amateur photog. He would take his camera with him to bars and tell chicks he shot for Maxim or some other mag, seemed to work for him. :D

Until they realized that he was full of sh*t and never called him again?
 
Course you could always use our one bonus (even though the fullframe lot will still lord over you) and show really creamy bokeh shots ;) :)


mmm... he will tell that his camera is able to focus on the whole picture and not only in that small place in front (which by the way you was not even able to put exactly in the center :lmao: ).
 
It would be helpful to know if the guy you speak of is using a faux slr p/s or just a p/s. To me the gap is much smaller between some of the faux slr p/s cameras then the more compact p/s.
 
A 1mm-20mm lens is a 20x zoom... I just explain it to them that way. Tell him to come back when his little lens and sensor hit puberty.
 

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