Landscape Photography: Difference between DSLR and point+shoot.

Turbodreams

Just looking for some advice here please. I am hoping to get my first DSLR in the next few months( either a D60, D40x or 400D) and was just wondering what i should expect in terms of difference between a DSLR and point and shooot. Below are two pics( not looking for C&C thanks:D) taken with a point and shoot. If i had taken them with a DSLR what differences should i expect? would colours be more vivid? thanks in advance for any advice!

elven

You're not going to like this... but...

Not a lot would be different as far as these shots are concerned, using a DSLR with an equivalent lens. The saturation/colours might be a little better because of the quality of the lens and the sensor, you'd get more sharpness (not much to the visible eye, viewing them at this res since those look pretty sharp to me - but if you wanted to get all pixel-peepy then a half decent lens on a dslr will beat a generic compact lens most of the time), you'd be able to see more detail if you print them bigger.

The difference with a DSLR isn't so much in how pictures like this would look. It's in the options that it gives you to take control of the image - you can compensate for awkward lighting, you can shoot at higher iso (it's that bigger sensor again) and you have the option to purchase lenses that will allow you to shoot in low light with large apertures, and that also gives you shallow depth of field that you will find it very tricky to get with a compact. Also, if you were to shoot in raw rather than jpg, it gives you more scope for manipulation because there's much more information held in the file.

If you don't want to take advantage of those things and you're happy enough with what you're getting from a compact, step away from the credit card

Ghost Train

Wider angle lens to capture more of the scene
And the dynamic range of the dslr sensor, more detail in shadow areas, cleaner looking picture(also down to bigger lens), cheap point and shoot can look sort of muddier sometimes.

Turbodreams

Thanks for the reply. Well after a few years of point&shoots im kinda looking for something more. i like landscape photography the most, but it doesnt sound like a DSLR will make much of a difference in the conditions above.if they were somewhat sharper that would be a plus! however, i should have said above that in low light conditions my point&shoot is feckin dire!! images become very noisey at any iso level above normal. well i guess i should think about it abit more and then make a decision!

Turbodreams

eolhc wrote: »

Wider angle lens to capture more of the scene
.

that is certainly something which would sway my decision in favour of an slr!

nilhg

Turbodreams wrote: »

....Well after a few years of point&shoots im kinda looking for something more....... i should have said above that in low light conditions my point&shoot is feckin dire!! images become very noisey at any iso level above normal..........

When you think that the entry level DSLRs are not much dearer than the top P&S models it wont be a hard decision.

Very very few people go back to P&S once they get a DSLR.