The term Digital SLR is an acronym for digital single lens reflex. These have a larger build and true SLR cameras have interchangeable lenses allowing for different types of photography. When you look through the viewfinder, you are effectively looking through the lens itself with the help of a series of mirrors that directs the light to the viewfinder. When you take a picture the mirror positioned behind the camera lens snaps up to expose the image on the digital sensor behind. This is why when you press the shutter the image in view disappears for a length of time, this length of time is known as shutter speed. Like the old 35mm camera experience with its interchangeable lenses, filters, and other gadgets, the digital SLR brings this experience into the digital age.

The common problem that can be detected and fixed without much hassle is the digital camera lens. Most of the time it is due to careless handling or improper setting that the lens ceases to function leaving you baffled over the matter. Most of the time, it is due to the improper alignment of the lens. You will encounter system error messages on the LCD. In such circumstances the camera is not able to focus and the result is worse pictures. You can simply realign the lens or reset the zoom barrel guide pins and you will find your digital camera working as usual.

Most digital cameras have both optical and digital zoom capabilities. Optical zoom is the camera lens which brings an object closer in focus while digital zoom uses in-camera software to digitally enlarge a portion of the object's image without necessarily using the zoom lens.

Optical zoom is better for digital photography since digital zoom only enlarges the image surrounding using a portion of the image to enlarge back to full image size. This will normally cause loss of quality making your photos look blurry. In case you want to enlarge or crop your image, use a software program such as photoshop installed on your pc, to get better control over how your final image will look.

An electronics on-line discussion forum contains a story about an elderly woman who wanted a simple camera to take pictures of her grandchildren. When she received a digital camera for Christmas, she looked puzzled for a moment and then asked, "Where do you put in the film?" This humorous example demonstrates how the revolutionary technology of digital cameras may be mystifying for those who have difficulty grasping the concept of a "filmless" camera! For almost a century, photography enthusiasts sagely discussed such topics as 35mm film, light meters and F-stops; today, digital cameras have made such topics all but obsolete.

For instance, by using levels control in PhotoShop and moving the right slider to the left side of Peak in the right part of the graph will give you a perfectly white background. The peak should be very thin and closer to the right border of the graph for better results. Moving the slider to the left will affect photo contrast and the colors of the object.

You can always select the Magic Wand Tool (W) in Adobe PhotoShop, set tolerance at 1, and leave Anti-alias, Contiguous and Sample all layers blank, then click on the background on your image. A purely white background containing only white pixels will be completely selected, while a not so pure background with stray pixels will not be selected.

The 5 basic and important terms associated with digital camera are:

1. Mega pixel

2. Focal length

3. Digital zoom

4. ISO

5. Shutter Lag

Howstuffworks.com contains an article by Gurevich, Karim, and Wilson that greatly simplifies an explanation of how digital cameras work. Very simply, they explain that CDs, mp3's, and DVDs all share the same technology: they convert traditional analog "wave" data into digital data based upon "bits." In so doing, this radical shift in technology has changed greatly - and forever - how we do things and what has become possible including digital "filmless" cameras. While film cameras depend upon chemical and mechanical processes, digital cameras contain a computer that records images electronically.