What's behind the uptick in the number of walkabout photographers toting digital SLR cameras rather than smaller point-and-shoots? Wider availability, lower costs, and greater functionality.

Once confined to the realm of enthusiast or professional photographers, digital SLRs now have greater appeal to more-casual photographers. "We're forecasting about 35 percent growth in the consumer SLR market this year," says David Haueter, an analyst at imaging market research firm InfoTrends.

IDC, another market research firm that tracks digital SLR shipments, makes similar estimates. IDC says it expects U.S. shipments of digital SLR cameras to grow to 2.2 million units this year. Furthermore, by 2011, IDC expects the market to nearly double, to 4 million units in the United States alone (about 36 percent of the total units worldwide).

And fortunately for digital SLR buyers, prices on digital SLRs continue to drop. According to InfoTrends, the average selling price of a digital SLR in 2006 was $966. Now, Haueter says, "we expect the average selling price to drop to $775 for 2007, driven by lower-priced and very popular models such as the Nikon D40x and Canon Digital Rebel XTi."

Taking Photography to the Next Level

Nikon's new addition is a $1799 D300 (body only); Canon's is a $1299 EOS 40D (body only).

Together, Canon and Nikon control 80 percent of the consumer digital SLR market, according to InfoTrends. These companies' combined heavyweight market share makes it all the more noteworthy that the two are simultaneously refreshing their step-up cameras.

Both models bring professional-level features to consumers, yet both aim to attract photo enthusiasts and professionals as well. "They're trying to make it easy for someone to move up from a point-and-shoot to an SLR by adding scene modes, auto settings, and live view [features]," says Haueter. "But they're also trying to appeal to some of the pros to use [one of] these midrange models as a backup camera."

Analysts are seeing a clear trend in how people are expanding their use of digital cameras. "It's easier in today's market to become an enthusiast/professional photographer," says Ron Glaz, program director of digital imaging at IDC. "We're seeing a lot of growth among individuals who'd consider themselves a hobbyist or enthusiast, and who might also work weddings for free."

This latest generation of midrange cameras straddles the consumer and professional markets as never before. "Manufacturers hope that as the low-end digital SLR users really get into photography, and as they move up the scale from hobbyist and early adopter to more of the enthusiast, they will buy more-sophisticated digital SLRs [by the same company] because they already have the lenses and other accessories," says Glaz.

Features Trickle Down, and Creep Up

For the most part, technology tends to migrate down to lower-cost models, but that isn't always the case. Take the example of Nikon's D300: This camera integrates scene modes and creative functions that have migrated up from the company's lower-cost point-and-shoot models. "People are trying to be more creative with their images, and a lot of them are trying to do the creativity in their camera, and not in Photoshop," notes Glaz. By putting such features into a digital SLR, "it's eliminating the need to utilize your PC to tie the creativity to the photo. People enjoy taking the pictures more than they enjoy editing them."

A live LCD preview of your image--a standard feature on point-and-shoot cameras--previously wasn't common on SLR cameras. (Olympus was the first to offer this capability, on its eVolt E-330 digital SLR, introduced a year ago.)

Live-preview functionality in the Canon 40D and Nikon D300 is just the beginning: As existing models face their next refresh, I fully expect to see live preview become the de facto standard for digital SLRs as well. And as live preview becomes more commonplace on SLRs, it will ease the transition for users moving from a point-and-shoot to an SLR--and it will bring one of the benefits of a point-and-shoot camera squarely into the SLR space.

Although consumers will purchase the majority of midrange models such as the Canon 40D and Nikon D300, these offerings hold clear appeal for professional shooters, too. The 40D and the D300 share a surprising number of commonalities with their bigger professional-grade cousins, the Canon EOS-1D Mark III and the Nikon D3, respectively.

The Canon 40D and EOS-1D Mark III share such features as a 3-inch, live-preview, 230,000-pixel LCD; a DIGIC III image processor; highlight tone priority; dust reduction; and similar menus and controls. The Nikon D300 and D3 share a slew of attributes, including the live-preview LCD screen; 3D Focus Tracking, a 51-point auto-focus system; various in-camera controls (Scene Recognition System, Picture Control System, Active D-Lighting); and dust reduction.

The advantage to adding such features to a midrange camera is multifold. No one stays a beginner forever; having more built-in pro-level features means you don't have to stay penned into a box, and you gain a more powerful creative tool. Plus, more-advanced photographers, like myself, can ratchet down to a more walkabout digital SLR without needing to make as many compromises in how we shoot as we once might have. (An EOS-1D Mark II is a wonderful tool, but not something I enjoy carrying with me on a day out in Tokyo.)

Everyone agrees that the advent of digital has changed the landscape of photography and how individuals regard their cameras. Buying a camera is now more like buying a computer: "With digital, now you have to upgrade every few years to stay on top of the technology," says Haueter. "That's unlike film, where you could buy a camera and then have it for decades."

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