A digital single lens reflex camera, or DSLR, is a high-end camera that allows you to remove the current lens and attach different lenses to the camera base. This is helpful as sometimes you may need a telephoto lens while other times you want a wide angle or fish eye lens. Digital SLR cameras are similar to their film based counterparts, as the glass of the lens adjusts how the camera seed a desired object. However, the image recording process is slightly different, as the light is not printed onto a film strip.
When pointing a DSLR camera at a desired object, light from the object travels through the camera’s lens, into the camera body, onto a light censor chip. Once the shutter on the digital SLR closes (when you push the capture button on the camera) the light censor chip, which is typically referred to as a charge coupled device (CCD) absorbs and reads the amount of light passing through the lens and stores the data as a digital file. The file is then saved onto the hard drive of the digital camera or on an inserted memory disk. You can then view the captured image on a computer.