Should you by a "point & shoot" or a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) or both?

What to buy is a question that I constantly get from a lot of people. The answer is that it depends on several factors. The two key factors are:

1. What’s the intended use?
2. What’s your budget?

As a professional photographer, I find that having both types of cameras is complimentary. I use a Digital SLR (DSLR) when I want quality or flexibility and I use a Point and Shoot (PS) for the convenience. The difference between these two categories is constantly changing as the technology changes.

One of the most common misconceptions, and what used to be the focus of marketing by camera companies, is that Megapixels (MP) is the most important factor. As manufacturers have come to realize, MP is not everything. For example, a PS with 14MP may not turn out as good of a quality photo as a 10MP DSLR. This is primarily due to the sensor size. DSLRs generally have larger sensors (the camera element that actually captures the photographic data) hence allowing for a higher quality photo. Today, manufacturers have been concentrating on noise reduction (the more noise, the grainier the photo). Larger sensors generally allow for less noise.

Point & Shoot (PS)

With either type of camera, you can take great pictures. The main differences are image quality, size & weight, responsiveness & performance, interchangeable lenses and ease of use. Choose a PS for size, convenience, ease and price. Choose a DLSR for quality, especially when enlarging pictures to size greater than 16x20, flexibility, expanded capabilities, better responsiveness and performance, larger sensor sizes and manual control. I’ll get into all the above features in the next two articles in this series – How to Buy a Point & Shoot and How to Buy a DSLR.