Downside to having a DSLR?

[Pea-n-Me]

We see a lot of threads about people asking if they should get a DSLR. We're usually all happy to give them the good news.

But what about the bad news, the downsides? What do you see them as? What do you think people should know before jumping in?

 

[Furgus]

My D50 does not fit very well in my pocket....but I will still take a DSLR over any Point and Shoot. I like to suffer

 

[dburg30]

Size is really the only downside I can think of.

You can pretty much turn them into Point n Shoots if you want. I can only think of positives, other then the size..

I mean, I guess price would be one. Always wanting more lenses etc etc.. But I dont know if those are negatives, or just necessary evils

 

[Steve's Girl]

NAS - it's a brutal disease. No known rehab facilities.

 

[dburg30]

NAS... trying to work out what it stands for, but not figuring it out..

 

[Quicklabs]

NAS-Nikon Acquisition Syndrome; Definitely a downside.
The weight of my camera bag has definitely increased with a DSLR.

 

[dburg30]

Ahhh.. So I guess that means I would suffer from CAS?

 

[InsertWittyNameHere]

Suffering from lens envy

The need for an external flash, a tripod, ND filters, Photoshop....I could go on and on

 

[MICKEY88]

NAS-Nikon Acquisition Syndrome; Definitely a downside.
The weight of my camera bag has definitely increased with a DSLR.

I solved that problem by buying a large bag with wheels..

hmm I guess we Sony owners suffer from SAS

 

[RBennett]

The only downside that I can think of (other then the already mentioned size/weight/constant desire to buy more stuff) is that with my DSLR I'm having to spend a LOT more time working with pictures than my point 'n shoot since I now have the desire to take a LOT more pictures!! In comparison I think I took around 300-400 pictures on my honeymoon to WDW with my point 'n shoot. This past week I took near 2000!!!!

 

[maccagerl]

I think a huge downside is seeing someone's photos that were taken with a DSLR, then going out and buying one thinking that the camera will give you the same great photos!
Remember, it's the skill of the photographer that gets those great photos, not the camera.
So , the downside is buying the camera and not making the time or effort to learn how to use it, to learn basic composition and exposure, and then being disappointed with the photos you've taken.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

1. Size
2. Weight
3. Cost
4. Complexity
5. Always thinking about buying more stuff
6. More strangers will ask you to take pictures of them with your camera
7. Friends and neighbors will expect you to take pictures at their events
8. Dust spots on sensor
9. Changing lenses

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I was going to say complexity, too, and also that darned learning curve.

 

[GrillMouster]

1. Size
2. Weight
3. Cost
4. Complexity
5. Always thinking about buying more stuff
6. More strangers will ask you to take pictures of them with your camera
7. Friends and neighbors will expect you to take pictures at their events
8. Dust spots on sensor
9. Changing lenses

Everything on Mark's list plus...
* in some locations a DSLR could make you more of a target for thieves.
* Usualy this is not a negative, but DSLRs have shallower depth of field. Sometimes I like being able to use a wide aperture on a point-and-shoot and still have decent depth of field with more of the scene in focus.

I participate in several boards, and I find that the ones with a lot of amateurs are more eager to push DSLRs to every new member. The boards with professionals tend to take more of a "don't spend more money than you need to" or "pack only the essentials" attitude. There are situations, like family vacations in which the pros on one board would say "take a point & shoot", whereas amateurs on another board would say "you've gotta have a DSLR".

 

[Sirpurry]

My new problem is getting it into events. The one I am going to only allows cameras without detachable lenses... knowing that my SLR will take much better shots than any p&s.

 

[frugal_mar]

If you took a DSLR and didn't feel like lugging it around and left it back at the hotel, that would be a disadvantage, since you wouldn't have it to take pictures. I don't remember if this were mentioned, but given the cost of the DSLR and the lenses, loosing it due to theft or carelessness could be very costly. (That wouldn't preclude me from taking my DSLR and a bunch of lenses. The same could be said for some high end point & shoot cameras. )


If someone asked me for advice, I would say, don't take any camera that you have never used before. I believe that you have have to feel comfortable with the camera, have a basic understanding of how it works and understand its limitations for the type of photography you will be taking.

 

[Aardvarks]

1 Weight
2 Bulk
3 Fewer or no pictures with family members posing in front of interesting sights
4 More pictures of interesting sights taken from strange angles/ zoom cropped/ early in the day/ late at night/ after rain/ with a rainbow/ under a moon/ flashed in with 4 heads and different coloured jells/ reflected in a pool/or river.
5 Always being 2 mins behind the rest of your family at any event
6 boring the neighbours with your holiday shots of a close up macro of a roman coin taken under fluorescent light and behind glass but technically perfect owing to white light balance correction/ small apperture/ slow shutter/ tripod (benbo of course) and a touch of photoshop.
7 looking through 8000 shots to find a nice one of the kids playing on the lawn

 

[shafke]

I was going to say complexity, too, and also that darned learning curve.

Actually I think the DLSR are a lot easier to use than the old SLR film cameras.

Try the learning curve for an SLR.
Dialing in your ISO
Manual focus - try manually focusing in low light conditions
Manually setting f-stop
Through the lens meter with either LEDs or a needle
Waiting for a roll to be developed
Getting the developed film back to find over/under exposed/out of focus pictures with no chance of retaking the picture

Yeah, you kids have it easy now.

 

[mabas9395]

I did have to buy an extra hard drive for all of my RAW files.

 

[wenrob]

Agreed on weight and NAS but it's a trade off I'm happy to make.

I would say my biggest problem is over thinking things and making them harder then they have to be.