Point and Shoot Cameras - As Distinct From SLR

As Distinct From SLR

Point-and-shoot cameras are distinguished from single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs) in several respects: point-and-shoot film cameras, and many digital ones, use a viewfinder. The image that the photographer sees is not the same image that passes through the primary lens of the camera (that is, the lens that projects the image onto the film or, in the case of digital cameras, the image sensor). Rather, the image in the viewfinder passes through a separate lens. SLRs, on the other hand, have only one lens, and a mirror diverts the image from the lens into the viewfinder; that mirror then retracts when the picture is taken so that the image can be recorded on the film or sensor. With this mechanism, pictures cannot be previewed on the LCD screens of most digital SLRs, although some manufacturers have found a way around this limitation. Digital cameras obviate the need for the SLR design to some degree, as the camera's LCD image is obtained through the lens, not a separate viewfinder. Many newer and smaller digital point-and-shoots omit the optical viewfinder.

With SLR cameras, it is important that the image in the viewfinder be the same image recorded by the film or sensor, so that the effect of the add-on lenses and filters can be seen by the photographer. Point-and-shoot cameras generally don't have such add-on devices, hence there is no such need.

The size limitations of compact and ultra-compact cameras, including digital ones, encourage the occurrence of photographic orbs — unexpected, typically circular artifacts that occur in flash photographs — where the short distance between the lens and the built-in flash decreases the angle of light reflection to the lens, directly illuminating the aspect of the normally sub-visible particles facing the lens and increasing the camera's ability to capture the light reflected off the particles.