5 reasons why a DSLR is better than a Point and Shoot camera

A DSLR has many advantages over a Point & Shoot camera and if you are serious about photography as a hobby (or even as a profession) than you need a DSLR. Here are some of the main advantages:

1. Interchangeable lenses

For most people this is the main advantage of a DSLR. With a Point & Shoot camera, you are stuck with the lens that is built into the camera. But with a DSLR you can change the lens and use the best for your current situation (of course only if you own such a lens, have rented one or a friend let you use his).
All DSLR manufactures offer a wide variety of lenses including wide-angle, macro or telephoto lenses. Canon and Nikon are the largest companies and offer the widest range of lenses. For example, Canon offers more than 60 lenses which range from ultra-wide angle zooms like the EF-S 10-22 to large super telephoto lenses like the EF 5.6/800L IS.
Beside the lenses from Canon itself, you can also use third party lenses from Sigma, Tamron or Tokina which are all available for Canon DSLRs (and of course also for Nikon and often also for the DSLRs of other manufactures).
Beside the flexibility to change lenses, the lenses for DSLRs are also of better quality than the lenses in most Point & Shoot cameras. Hight quality lenses like the Nikon 2.8/14-24 or the Canon 2.8/300 are way ahead of the lenses you will find in non DSLR cameras.

2. Better sensors

DSLRs have larger sensors than almost all Point & Shoot cameras. That is also true for sensors with a crop factor. The sensors in those cameras are still much larger than in non DSLR cameras.
Larger sensors mean better image quality and less noise. That’s why full frame cameras like the Nikon D3 or the Canon EOS 5D deliver amazing results at high ISO settings like ISO 1.600 or even higher. Those values are either not available on Point & Shoot cameras or if they are, they are not usable.

3. Full control

Although some Point & Shoot allow you to set many parameters including exposure compensation, they normally don’t offer all the features of a DSLRs, definitely not the possibilities of a pro DSLR like the Canon EOS 1D Mark III.
All DSLRs allow you to set the exposure in manual mode which is often necessary despite all the claims of the camera manufactures about how good their metering systems are. Beside manual exposure, DSLRs also let you configure other things like White-Balance or which AF mode you want to use.
Only with a DSLR do you have full creative control!

4. You keep the control over depth-of-field

Due to the very small sensors (and therefore large crop factors) of most Point & Shoot, they use lenses with a very small focal length, often below 10mm. This results in a very large depth-of-field which is often not what you want.
When shooting portraits, for example, you often want a calm background. Where you would use something like 15mm with a Point & Shoot camera, you would use something between 50mm and 150mm with a DSLR. The longer focal length makes it much easier to get a calm out-of-focus background because of the smaller depth-of-field and angle of view.
Portrait photography with Point & Shoot cameras is not fun at all as you just can’t get small depth-of-field.
The small depth-of-field is why many portrait photographers prefer full frame DSLRs over those with a crop factor.

5. DSLRs are faster

With a Point & Shoot camera, you often wait quite some times (sometimes several seconds) until the camera finally makes the image after you have pressed the shutter button. A DSLR works much faster and has only a very short shutter lag. That means, when you press the shutter button, the camera takes the image (almost) immediately.
Beside this, DSLRs normally allow you to shoot much more frames per seconds than a Point & Shoot camera. This is due to the more powerful processors and software in DSLRs. Professional DSLRs allow you to take up to 8 and more frames per second.
Even midrange cameras like the EOS 40D can shoot more than 5 frames per second.

To be honest, a DSLR also has some disadvantages like the normally higher price, dust on the sensor (although this has gotten much better with the recent cameras with self-cleaning sensors) or just being larger and heavier. A small Point & Shoot camera will easily fit into the pocket of your jacket.

But for me, the advantages of DSLRs are much more important than the disadvantages just mentioned.

If you are serious about photography and want full creative control, you need a DSLR!