What is the real definition of DSLR?

[spacediver]

I'm trying to understand why DSLR is considered a useful category of classification. Technically, a DSLR could have a crappy sensor, not provide RAW images, not have any ability to adjust exposure, ISO, or aperture, and not allow interchangeable lenses. All it would need to do, to fit this formal definition, is have a single lens reflex mechanism and be digital.

That is correct, and you even said it, but appear not to grasp it.

I do grasp this, but then you have comments like this:

Sometimes a term has an official meaning, but changes in the nature of technology or marketing choices mean that the term starts to mean two different things - a strict "as read" definition and a casual use one. Camera manufacturers would not want to lose decades of marketing that has been pumped into SLR and DSLRs - so it might be that they drop the whole mirrorbox assembly at some point, but they'd likely still keep the DSLR name - DSLR being the term in itself rather than D.S.L.R.
They could drop the R and just call them Digital Single Lens - DSL; although I suspect many would keep calling them DSLRs (indeed many still call them SLRs even though they are using and meaning a digital camera not a film one)

See the bolded section. If indeed a manufacturer dropped the SLR mechanism, yet called it a DSLR, what is a consumer to make of this designation?

 

[WayneF]

I'm trying to understand why DSLR is considered a useful category of classification. Technically, a DSLR could have a crappy sensor, not provide RAW images, not have any ability to adjust exposure, ISO, or aperture, and not allow interchangeable lenses. All it would need to do, to fit this formal definition, is have a single lens reflex mechanism and be digital.

That is correct, and you even said it, but appear not to grasp it.

I do grasp this, but then you have comments like this:

Depends - there are good few "macro" lenses that are not capable of a 1:1 magnification ratio and yet are called macro lenses.

Sometimes a term has an official meaning, but changes in the nature of technology or marketing choices mean that the term starts to mean two different things - a strict "as read" definition and a casual use one. Camera manufacturers would not want to lose decades of marketing that has been pumped into SLR and DSLRs - so it might be that they drop the whole mirrorbox assembly at some point, but they'd likely still keep the DSLR name - DSLR being the term in itself rather than D.S.L.R.
They could drop the R and just call them Digital Single Lens - DSL; although I suspect many would keep calling them DSLRs (indeed many still call them SLRs even though they are using and meaning a digital camera not a film one)

See the bolded section. If indeed a manufacturer dropped the SLR mechanism, yet called it a DSLR, what is a consumer to make of this designation?

That is of course not fact, won't happen, just some silly notion. Probably just pulling your leg. I think they are calling them Mirrorless. Or Compact, or 4:3, etc

 

[KmH]

Not all DSLR cameras allow lens interchangeability.

The photo active areas on a DSLR image sensor chip are not digital devices. They are analog devices.
The photo active region of a pixel on a CCD is an epitaxial layer of silicon (a type of capacitor). CMOS uses photo diodes as the photo active region.
Charge-coupled device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Active pixel sensor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The CCD/CMOS war was won by CMOS for several reasons.
1. CMOS sensors cost less to make.
2. CMOS uses a less power.
3. CMOS is less prone to blooming
4. Less power usage means less thermal noise and batteries take longer to discharge.

A disadvantage of CMOS is a rolling shutter when shooting video. Frame transfer CCD used for video has a global shutter.

 

[snowbear114 45]

Depending on to whom you are talking, anything that resembles a DSLR or SLR will just be called a "Pro camera."

 

[enzodm]

I do grasp this, but then you have comments like this:
...
See the bolded section. If indeed a manufacturer dropped the SLR mechanism, yet called it a DSLR, what is a consumer to make of this designation?

Overread comment was just a speculation on marketing terminology. Sony substituted the mobile mirror with a translucent one and called it SLT, as a counter example.

You can compare DSLR vs. mirrorless or MILC (where the specific fact of mirror absence vs. dSLR is evident). The optical viewfinder should be a direct consequence of the definition.
Lens interchangeability is not in the definition and also not needed, but I'm not aware of any dSLR with fixed lens - while there have been SLRs with fixed lenses. So it is typically part of the package, but not on the definition.
Secondary features however have been associated to dSLR at least until some month ago: quality is one, since typically dSLR have larger sensors. However, now some compact camera starts to have APS-C sized sensors, so in terms of pure quality, distance can be less. In a negative meaning, also size is associated to dSLR ("compact cameras" and the recent attempt of defining CSC exploit that difference).

However, unless you are a mathematician (and in case, not on fuzzy logic), you could easily live without depending on definitions only : if you now blindly order a dSLR, you will receive a single lens reflex camera with viewfinder and interchangeable lenses, a sensor large at least 18 mm × 13.5 mm, and weight starting from 400gr. If you do not need the optical viewfinder, you can go mirrorless too. If you do not need interchangeable lenses and accept some less quality, you can choose (very few) premium compact cameras.

For example, CCD sensors are often contrasted with DSLR sensors.

really? where?

EDIT: one single place I can think of is (old-style) image and video acquisition for microscopes, where "CCD camera" and "3CCD camera" defined TV resolution cameras to be mounted on microscopes. Also there now you can find CMOS cameras with much higher resolution.

 

[Ido]

I'm trying to understand why DSLR is considered a useful category of classification. Technically, a DSLR could have a crappy sensor, not provide RAW images, not have any ability to adjust exposure, ISO, or aperture, and not allow interchangeable lenses. All it would need to do, to fit this formal definition, is have a single lens reflex mechanism and be digital.

Precisely correct.

But the thing is, that reflex mirror and everything that's tied with it isn't at all cheap to manufacture, so it better be an advanced camera as it's going to be expensive anyway. (Expensive here being relative - there are $500-$600 current-generation DSLR cameras, like the Nikon D3300, which is very inexpensive when compared to other current-generation DSLRs, but when you put that up against point-and-shoot cameras, it's quite a lot more expensive.)
It also becomes a camera that doesn't really appeal to the masses. It's now a big and bulky camera that has a hole you look through (that's maybe how an uninformed person would see it; it's obviously not just a 'hole') and the picture taken at the end may look very different from what one sees through it. And when you want to frame a shot with the screen, autofocus is usually pretty slow (though that's not always the case).

Just a few years ago, DSLRs were considered the only "serious" digital cameras, as it was basically them and cheap point-and-shoot cameras. But now there are advanced mirrorless cameras, both with interchangeable lenses and without, that have the same advanced functions and components, only without that reflex mechanism.

 

[spacediver]

Secondary features however have been associated to dSLR at least until some month ago: quality is one, since typically dSLR have larger sensors. However, now some compact camera starts to have APS-C sized sensors, so in terms of pure quality, distance can be less. In a negative meaning, also size is associated to dSLR ("compact cameras" and the recent attempt of defining CSC exploit that difference).

However, unless you are a mathematician (and in case, not on fuzzy logic), you could easily live without depending on definitions only : if you now blindly order a dSLR, you will receive a single lens reflex camera with viewfinder and interchangeable lenses, a sensor large at least 18 mm × 13.5 mm, and weight starting from 400gr. If you do not need the optical viewfinder, you can go mirrorless too. If you do not need interchangeable lenses and accept some less quality, you can choose (very few) premium compact cameras.

Thanks, this is useful.

really? where?

here's one example (where DSLR is contrasted with CCD, implying that DSLR refers to the sensor type).

Starizona's Guide to CCD Imaging

 

[spacediver]

But the thing is, that reflex mirror and everything that's tied with it isn't at all cheap to manufacture, so it better be an advanced camera as it's going to be expensive anyway. (Expensive here being relative - there are $500-$600 current-generation DSLR cameras, like the Nikon D3300, which is very inexpensive when compared to other current-generation DSLRs, but when you put that up against point-and-shoot cameras, it's quite a lot more expensive.)

ahh, now things are starting to make sense. I didn't consider the idea that a reflex mechanism would be expensive to manufacture.

It also becomes a camera that doesn't really appeal to the masses. It's now a big and bulky camera that has a hole you look through (that's maybe how an uninformed person would see it; it's obviously not just a 'hole') and the picture taken at the end may look very different from what one sees through it. And when you want to frame a shot with the screen, autofocus is usually pretty slow (though that's not always the case).

Just a few years ago, DSLRs were considered the only "serious" digital cameras, as it was basically them and cheap point-and-shoot cameras. But now there are advanced mirrorless cameras, both with interchangeable lenses and without, that have the same advanced functions and components, only without that reflex mechanism.

cheers, this helps a lot.

 

[Patrice]

I thought I was sometimes verbose, but this thread takes the prize.

 

[enzodm]

Thanks, this is useful.



here's one example (where DSLR is contrasted with CCD, implying that DSLR refers to the sensor type).

Starizona's Guide to CCD Imaging

Ok, it is in the same sense I know about microscopy: dSLR is the full package, while like in microscopy there are cameras that are more or less just a sensor in an enclosure, to be used together with a computer, traditionally sold as "CCD cameras". So the convention or mistake is in the CCD camera term more than in the dSLR term.

 

[Bebulamar]

There were a number of DSLR's that have crappy sensor like 1.3MP, 2/3 inch CCD sensor and yet no crop factor. Check out the Nikon E series E2 and E3. A DSLR is simply defined by its viewing system and not by anything else.

 

[ElliotGrangler]

To me and most I explain to, it is a Digital form factor to a older high-end 35mm film loading camera. The details of internal specifications and how the camera actually captures the photos can become boresome so I tell them its just a digital lens camera that captures and adds pictures to a flash drive.

 

[enzodm]

I tell them its just a digital lens camera that captures and adds pictures to a flash drive.

...instead, a compact camera is just a digital lens camera that captures and adds pictures to a flash drive, while a mirrorless camera is just a digital lens camera that captures and adds pictures to a flash drive. Very useful definition, isn't it?

 

[ishaanb1]

The thing is CCD was the first digital sensor created in 1962. CMOS just perfected on it overtime ( mostly for photography).
Now DSLR vs mirrorless is a question mostly on ergonomics, as mirrorless are much compact. ( obviously technically, companies are trying to achieve standard quality, or in fact better than that as in case of leica). The most obvious quantity of difference in cameras that remains is of the viewfinder, and which lens supplies the image for it. The one taking the exposure(SLR or DSLR) , a different one dedicated to the viewfinder(TLR) , or none at all( mirrorless)

 

[Stradawhovious]

D - Digital, meaning the image is captured digitally as opposed to on an emulsion film.
S - Single, meaning one. Singular.
L - Lens. That twirly extendy doohickey with glass in it attached to the front of the camera. Often swappable.
R - Reflex. Uses a mirror and prism allowing the shutter-presser to see through the lens itself as opposed to a seperate, offset viewfinder.


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