Digital S.L.R.�s That Let You Shoot Like a Pro

To an ordinary person, the summer might mean barbecues, baseball games and trips to the beach. To a photography nut, however, it means longer days of sunlight, brighter subject colors (beach balls, bathing suits) and more people who don�t have to be told to �Smile!�

Nothing has turned more ordinary people into shutterbugs than recent price drops in digital S.L.R. (single-lens reflex) cameras. These big, black, interchangeable-lens cameras may not fit in your pocket, and they may scream, �I�m a tourist� when hanging from your neck, but their photos blow those little shirt-pocket cams out of the water. Digital S.L.R.�s turn on instantly, can take three shots per second, offer optional manual controls, go for weeks on a battery charge and have zero shutter lag. In short, they�re awesome.

In the last few months, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus and Sony have each started selling new advanced S.L.R.�s in the $700 to $800 range.

There are even cheaper S.L.R.�s, but these models have some useful features that justify the price.

For example, most can shake dust off their sensors � dust that may have entered the camera during a lens change, and would otherwise cast a shadowy spot in the same places on every picture.

Three of these five models offer built-in stabilizers, too. Without a tripod, a stabilizer can mean the difference between a blurry shot and a sharp one. Stabilization also lets you get long-range shots without blur.

All of these are 10-megapixel cameras. It�s a shame the camera companies continue to flog this measurement as though it�s important; more than six megapixels adds only negligible sharpness and may introduce random speckles in the photograph, something the pros call �noise.�

You gain some freedom to crop enlargements, but you also fill up your memory card and hard drive faster. Factors like lens quality and sensor size are far more important.

Here�s what the 10-megapixel $800 camera category has in store. Don�t miss the photo samples that accompany this review at nytimes.com/tech.

For more information : nytimes