WhichCamera: What Type of Digital Camera is Best for Photo Enthusiasts!

The choice for advanced enthusiasts, an update from the wealth and fame of their film-type incarnation. Most Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras today are based on the design and functionality of the 35mm film SLRs, while the Medium Format types are advancements of the 6x6 or 645 film format.

Adaptable to almost all genres of photography, interchangeable lenses, are the forte of this category. Make and models are further sub-categorized to the professionals, advanced enthusiasts, middle and lower entry levels, with price and functionality as the main determinants. Current top-selling models:

Once truly a realm for the professionals, digital rangefinder cameras are also a good genre of cameras to start out with. Digital imaging technology was applied to rangefinder cameras for the first time in 2004, with the introduction of the Epson R-D1, the first ever digital rangefinder camera. The RD-1 was a collaboration between Epson and Cosina. The R-D1 and later R-D1s use Leica M-mount lenses, or earlier Leica screw mount lenses with an adapter.

Leica released its first digital rangefinder camera, the Leica M8, in 2006. The M8 and R-D1 are expensive compared to more common digital SLRs, and lack several features that are common with modern digital cameras, such as no real telephoto lenses available beyond 135mm focal length, very limited macro ability, live preview, movie recording, and face detection.

A mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC) is the new kid on the block, an emerging class of digital system cameras that sits squat intermediate between compact digital cameras and digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs). They are characterized by large sensors (the same size as entry-level DSLRs), no mirror, and interchangeable lenses, as the name suggests, and provide DSLR-quality pictures in a significantly smaller camera.

Currently, there are three such cameras systems available from four manufacturers: Micro Four Thirds from Olympus and Panasonic, NEX from Sony, and NX from Samsung, with several other rumored systems coming from manufacturers such as Nikon and Leica.

Aside from the MILCs, Digital Bridge cameras do fill the same niche between the single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs) and a compact. Often comparable in size and weight to the smallest Digital SLRs (DSLR), digital bridge cameras an non-interchangeable lens unit which have been developed to have very powerful zoom ranges, a criteria that as set it apart as a camera of choice for the extremes and adventures wothout the bulk and weight of a normal DSLR system.

With most digital bridge cameras now having long zoom lenses, the term digital bridge camera may not be used as often heard or used when compared the the same as a superzoom, megazzom of an ultrazoom digital camera.

Super enthusiast compacts do fit in your pocket, have SLR-style controls, manual mode shooting capabilities, single non-interchangeable fast lens for superb image quality even in low light conditions, prices that can raise an eyebrow, and is definitely and uppance within your social circle.

Hallmarks of these advance compacts may include a fusion of current technology with graceful design and features, plenty of kit crammed into the body, larger-than-average sensor, fast lens, manual override and shooting mode, with the main intention being clearly to achieve as high quality images as possible.

Compact travel zooms are a plus for photo enthusiast travelers or travel adventurers who does not want o be bogged down with heavy and bulky equipment. Pocketable, with a powerful zoom capability to boot, these cameras are the ultimate for taking in those vistas and grand landscapes while not forgetting macro shots of the fine details of your adventure.