Shutter and aperture in point and shoot digital camera

[k.udhay]

Hi,

Yesterday I got to see a point and shoot Canon camera which had aperture priority mode (AV) and shutter priority mode (TC). Do point and shoot cameras actually have shutter and aperture? If yes, then other than the Single lens reflexion is there no other difference between point & shoot and SLRs? Thanks.

 

[TCampbell]

They usually have an "electronic" shutter rather than a physical shutter. They often will have exposure controls. There's a category of point & shoot called "advanced" point & shoot... they typically have full control.

I have a Canon G1 X which has all the same manual controls you'd find on a DSLR. I use it for places where it's either not permitted to take a DSLR (lots of concert events allow cameras as long as the camera does not have a "removable" lens -- basically they fear anyone with what they regard as a "professional camera" and they use the removable lens to define "professional".) I also bring it to places where it's just not practical to bring my DSLR.

 

[k.udhay]

Thanks, Tim. What about aperture? Do they actually have the same type of diaphragm type aperture?

 

[TCampbell]

Thanks, Tim. What about aperture? Do they actually have the same type of diaphragm type aperture?

Yes - same aperture blades as a regular camera.

They don't have a mirror... so no mirror, no phase-detect focusing, no through-the lens viewfinder (my camera has a viewfinder which "approximates" the view of the camera -- including zooming). It goes through batteries in a hurry since (the light meter only shows up on the rear LCD when activating metering in "live view" mode.)

 

[k.udhay]

Thanks again, Tim.