Difference between point and shoot cameras

[tallnbig68]

<p>Was trying to determine when the term "point and shoot"<br>

is no longer applicable to a digital camera that is not<br>

really a simple point and shoot.</p>

<p>Am thinking of cameras which are not physically small<br>

shirt-pocket designs, more in physical size to a digital<br>

single lens reflex camera.</p>

<p>Just curious...</p>

[mwaks]

<p>For point & shoots which also have manual control, I see the word "prosumer" tossed around. Something worthy of a consumer who is a professional. I don't think size matters.</p>

[mark_chartrand]

I always considered any camera that you could not change the focus or exposure a point and shoot camera?

 

Mark

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Any camera with an auto-everything mode could qualify as a P&S. With the appropriate settings my Nikon D2H is a P&S. A heavy, beastly, intimidating P&S. But I can hand it to anyone and they can take a passable snapshot with only one instruction: "Press this button."</p>

[subbarayan_prasanna]

<p>I guess by some definitions even the new DSLRs are P&S, because, they start focusing as soon as you bring the view finder up to your eye! The rest is done automatically including "say cheeze" and recognizing the smiling faces! Only manual thing you may be required to do is lifting the weight and changing the lens if you want to. The rest is in press buttons.</p>

[bobcossar]

<p>Easier to say everything is a P&S if it isn't a DSLR. No quality observations really qualify anymore in my opinion.....Bob</p>

[laurent-paul]

<p>Lex, that's interesting : Do you mean that P&S means using the Auto-everything mode ?</p>

<p>I have done only what I thought is P&S for a bit more than a year, but never used once any autoanything.</p>

 

[matthew_newton]

<p>I think if you look at it from Lex's perspective most modern cameras are point and shoots. In fact I think the Lieca M8 might be about the only modern digital camera that isn't a point and shot by that deffinition (but only because you still have to focus manually).<br>

I would personally consider a point and shoot something that does not have an interchangable lens. Therefore the Rangefinders (err, finder) like the M8 and the micro 4/3rds fall in to the same catagory as the dSLR and SLR cameras, they are not point and shoot. I'd argue that old completely manual film cameras with fixed lenses were point and shoots.</p>

[laurent-paul]

<p>Ah ok. thanks for the clarification, and sorry for my misunderstanding.</p>