The days of consumers owning film cameras are quickly fading into the past, and digital is becoming the defacto standard for both consumers and professionals alike. Sure, film will always have its place for certain things, but for the average and enthusiast consumer alike, film is dead.

Whether you're moving to your second or third digital camera, or you're looking to pick up your very first, odds are you and the person next to you are looking for the same thing... a quality picture. Who wants to bother taking pictures of those special moments with a camera that won't give you a clear, printable photo?

There are literally hundreds of different digital cameras available, and for the most part, most will take a reasonably good picture. However, there are two distinct classes of digital cameras, "Point & Shoot (P/S for short)" and "Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR)", and not only will choosing one over the other determine how good your pictures can turn out, but can also change the very basics of how you use the camera.

Yog-Sothoth has done a marvelous job of explaining the basic differences between P/S and DSLR digital cameras, what each is capable of, and when you may want to consider one over the other. Remember, there's never a right answer as to which is best, and every decision is not without sacrifice; convenience over quality, features over price, etc. If you want to get the perfect camera, try not to decide which type is best in general. Instead, examine your own needs, desires, and skills to determine which is best for you.

-Matt Whitlock - Editor, TechLore.com

POINT-AND-SHOOT (P/S) DIGITAL CAMERA

ADVANTAGES

Price: A good P/S with a myriad of features can be purchased for less than $200. The P/S digital cameras usually have a wide optical zoom range with minimal extra cost. Most use standard AA batteries, which are cheap can be found almost anywhere.

Convenience and ease of use: Some are smaller than a pack of cigarettes,

so they easily fit into a shirt pocket. It’s usually only a matter of turning them on to get them ready to take pictures; I don’t believe I actually ever read the manual for mine before I started taking pictures with it. Those “candid camera” shots can easily be taken with a P/S camera, as very little preparation is usually needed. Since most of them use the JPEG format, very little must be done after shooting to prepare the pictures for web viewing, and a memory card can hold hundreds of JPEG images, depending on the size of the card.

Maintenance: Very little is needed to maintain a P/S camera. The only cleaning that a P/S requires is the exterior of the lens, and is usually only necessary if there are smudges on the lens. Simple dust will usually not appear in an image.

DISADVANTAGES

Viewfinder: Some low-end P/S cameras only provide a fixed viewfinder, so the user has no idea how the picture will look until after he actually takes it. More expensive P/S cameras, however, may show a “real-time” view of the image in the LCD as the picture is being taken. This has led to the so-called “digital stance,” where someone holds the camera over a foot away from himself to “frame” the subject.

Flexibility: P/S camera lenses are permanent fixtures on the camera, so the user is limited in what he can do. Some P/S cameras offer accessory lenses and/or filters that can be attached to the main lens, but these are usually proprietary and only work with that particular model camera. Most P/S cameras only have the option of the built-in flash, which tends to be very limited in range.

Quality: While P/S cameras can take excellent pictures, their image quality is usually overshadowed by the DSLR, even with the same rated number of megapixels. Most P/S digital cameras use the JPEG format, which is, by nature, a compressed format, so the best image quality possible cannot be attained.

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