Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Our third Christmas guest writer, photography website editor Ian Burley from DPNow, considers if the days of the SLR camera are numbered.

SLR cameras are special, aren’t they? The first time you pick up an SLR, peer through the viewfinder and release the shutter, if was the same for you as it was for me (all those years ago!) , it was a watershed experience;  rather like driving a car for the first time. The viewfinder, the mechanical whirr, clunk and click of the mirror and shutter operating in tandem, and the reassuring interchangeability of the lens, they all add up to a feeling that never goes away. An SLR has purpose, a mechanical assuredness, almost infinite potential. It’s exhilarating and satisfying in use and makes one look down upon compact cameras with a sense of diluted respect.

But is the SLR camera era under threat? Will many of us never fulfil long-cherished ambitions to own an SLR? Might existing SLR users abandon their old reflex passion… for something new?

Click to continue...