The prevalence of the term ‘DSLR’, combined with a shocking lack of product understanding among retailers looking to buy holiday devices, has the potential to cause some serious disappointment. I saw it with my own eyes while researching The best camera deals this Black Fridayso I thought I could pass on what I learned.

If it looks like a DSLR and sounds like a DSLR… well, wait. Not this. But some of the cameras listed by retailers as DSLRs are as close to reflex cameras as a rubber ducky is to a bird sitting on a pond before migrating to warmer climates.

How can this happen? Because most people don’t actually know what a DSLR is. For many people ‘Digital Single Lens Reflex’ means nothing. They (understandably) know them as ‘big cameras that look neat and take nicer photos’. This was a distinction that emerged around the time digital technology entered pockets ( best camera phones) and the broader concept of the compact camera were finding new purposes in life. GoPros-like devices was also emerging. The digital revolution has changed a lot.

In fact, if you don’t know, DSLR technology is one step behind the latest development in camera technology, which is now ‘mirrorless’. If serious photographers had a ‘three year old camera’ they had a ‘twin lens’ where one lens would look through and the other would take the photo. Then came the SLR, which uses a mirror so you can look through the same lens, which has obvious advantages, and finally the mirrorless.