Can you define a P&S?

[SausalitoDog]

Comment est-ce qu'on dit define? 😛

A point-and-shoot camera is a camera that has almost no user controls except to point it at a subject and to shoot -- except to perhaps focus and to set the flash. No aperture control, no shutter control, few exposure controls, and no capability to add filters, larger flash units, or other accessories.

Add to that an observation that they generally have no viewfinder, relatively poor build and very small sensors...they might make great snapshots but leave you little room to crop and adjust for larger prints.

Clearly the lines are blurring but the concept remains - like pornography - something you usually "just know." 🙂

 

[bugmenot]

Add to that an observation that they generally have no viewfinder, relatively poor build and very small sensors...they might make great snapshots but leave you little room to crop and adjust for larger prints.

Clearly the lines are blurring but the concept remains - like pornography - something you usually "just know." 🙂

That applies to digital point and shoots. Also a LCD is an electronic viewfinder.

 

[David Hughes]

HI,

I'll go along with just point and shoot, meaning no control over the things beyond that.

But most of them let you turn off the flash, so do any exist in reality?

Regards, David

PS No How are we defining reality comments please. This thread is running in a big enough loop already </;-)

 

[Bill Clark]

It depends who is working the camera.

 

[SausalitoDog]

That applies to digital point and shoots. Also an LCD is an electronic viewfinder.

That's true about the viewfinder, but the concept that goes wrong with the LCD is that you hold the camera at arm's length and it is always going to be less stable (sharp) than if you held it against your forehead for stability, in my thoughts, one of the biggest advantages of the viewfinder 🙂

 

[cosmonaut]

P&S = Press and Pray.

 

[Chris101]

My Lytro seems to be the quintessential point and shoot. It's got no controls other than pointing and shooting.

 

[Sparrow]

HI,

I'll go along with just point and shoot, meaning no control over the things beyond that.

But most of them let you turn off the flash, so do any exist in reality?

Regards, David

PS No How are we defining reality comments please. This thread is running in a big enough loop already </;-)

... reality is an illusion brought about by imbibing too little alcohol

 

[robbiechad]

I think I can say my Minolta Dynax 7xi is definitely a point and sdhoot !!

 

[zuiko85]

You can make quite a few cameras into a point and shoot. If I load my OM-1 with 400 ISO color negative film, click on a 28mm lens, set lens at f11, set focus to 8 feet, set shutter to 1/125th., I have reduced the camera to the equivalent of a 'one use' point and shoot camera.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

I will suggest that a P&S is a camera which is well-designed for, or perhaps optimized for, fully automatic photography with no user choices or settings. Yes, a dSLR can be used in fully auto mode, but it has a a wide range of user choices.

Real P&S cameras have no extra baggage. Open the cover, bring to the eye, and push the button. Click, whirr, and you are done.

By my definition, a Yashica T4 is a P&S. A Panasonic LX5 is not.

 

[Aristophanes]

I think of a "point and shoot" camera as any fixed lens camera that has an "auto" mode of some form. You point, perhaps compose, and shoot. Everything else is done for you. This applies whether it is digital or film. All other options are just that, options.

On this forum, the only "point and shoot" that due to some mysterious reason received its own forum is the X100.

Almost no fixed lens cameras anymore. It's pretty much all zooms save for the X100.

At one point it was costly to automate and duplicate manual controls, but digital controls (by wire) eliminate P&S as a camera design implementation fixed t the body.

P&S is simply a function all cameras can have through automation of focus and exposure.

Leica excepted, for a $15,000 premium.

 

[BlackXList]

Add to that an observation that they generally have no viewfinder, relatively poor build and very small sensors...they might make great snapshots but leave you little room to crop and adjust for larger prints.

Clearly the lines are blurring but the concept remains - like pornography - something you usually "just know." 🙂

lets not be quite so hasty, we could be missing out on the opportunity to do a lot of "research" to come up with a definition here

 

[Bob Michaels]

So is a Holga a point & shoot? You cannot adjust aperture or shutter speed. And your focus choices are icons of: 1 person, 3 persons, 7 persons or a mountain.

Or, how about a Brownie Hawkeye? You have no adjustments at all.

Don't let your thinking be constrained by a small box.

 

[daveleo]

my DSLR has a P mode.
point . . . shoot

"Point and shoot" is a procedure. Some cameras can only do that one procedure, some can that plus more.

 

[bugmenot]

Almost no fixed lens cameras anymore. It's pretty much all zooms save for the X100.

At one point it was costly to automate and duplicate manual controls, but digital controls (by wire) eliminate P&S as a camera design implementation fixed t the body.

P&S is simply a function all cameras can have through automation of focus and exposure.

Leica excepted, for a $15,000 premium.

I wrote "fixed lens camera", as opposed to an interchangeable lens camera. I was not referring to a fixed focal length. 🙂

 

[Merkin]

So is a Holga a point & shoot? You cannot adjust aperture or shutter speed. And your focus choices are icons of: 1 person, 3 persons, 7 persons or a mountain.

Or, how about a Brownie Hawkeye? You have no adjustments at all.

Don't let your thinking be constrained by a small box.

Brownie Hawkeye, yes. Holga, no. You have to do a bit of tinkering with a holga, but you can adjust the aperture. You also zone focus a holga. Also, technically you have the choice of two shutter speeds- 1/60, and Bulb.

 

[GaryLH]

P&S = Press and Pray.

LOL 😀

Any camera has af and can be set to full program mode with a built in flash such that someone who knows nothing about aperture and shutter speed can take a good picture. The camera I can ask anyone to take a picture of my wife and I.

Gary

 

[bugmenot]

"Point and shoot" is a procedure. Some cameras can only do that one procedure, some can [do] that plus more.

+100.

Now, should we only call the cameras that can do that one procedure alone a point and shoot camera, or should we be including the ones that can do a little more ... Where would we draw the line for features?

 

[dave lackey]

The point and shoot line is indeed blurred....this must be the bokeh of camera categorization.😛