Hell, reading your list I can't for the life of me understand why anybody would actually buy a slr with all it's disadvantages!.

That's a powerful list of advanatges for p&s cameras you have there. I've just put my entire slr rig and lenses up for sale..

Anybody tell me what p&s I should buy...?..

They come in lots of pretty colors like pink and orange..

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My wife's got a Canon p&s that takes some great pictures. Many times her pictures are as good as or better than mine with the D 200..

Maybe I am a lousy photographer, but I don't care. I like the feel of a DSLR and like the wide angle ability I have with my Tokina 12-24 and the telephoto ability I have with my Sigma 70-200..

The flash capability with a my SB 800 is incredible compared to the 10-12 feet you get with a p&S...

Ed..

I just got a dslr from using a p&s for 10 years. Ill stick to the dslr..

My pics on my pbase have both. Page 2 is mostly point and shoot. You can truly see a difference. Im new and still suck but the dslr has upped my quality even tho my knowledge still sucks. Does that make any sense at all?.

Hehehe.

Or you could say.....to each his own!.

Check out my new Pbase gallery.........

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Most people who have one use their DSLR in P&S mode and convince themself that they love it. Maybe I love it too... but then maybe there are times when it's a clunky old dinosaur without the full range of modern technology afforded by the Panasonic, Canon, Olympus and Fuji Megazooms. That's a premise I'm currently testing here with a DSLR and aFuji 9100 - the answer is by no means clear cut:.

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John.Please visit me at:.

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Advantages of cameras with mirrors vs cameras that dont have mirrors:.

Mirror........................................................No Mirror.

Fast auto focus...........................................Fast shutter (sometimes).

Low noise..................................................Big Depth of Field.

Lens choices..............................................No problem with dust.

Accessories................................................Simple.

Easy to hold/use (sometimes)......................Small & light.

Only comes in black/silver............................Available in designer colors.

Have RAW mode........................................Have live histogram (sometimes).

Have optical viewfinder................................Have electronic viewfinder (sometimes)Fast operation............................................Quiet operation.

Good low-light operation..............................Have BIG LCDs.

The image is simply un-fooled around with......Have flip + twist LCDs (sometimes)No stigma of low cost..................................Cheap.

White lenses (Canon only)............................Video mode.

Charlie DavisNikon 5700 & Sony R1CATS #25PAS Scribe @ http://www.here-ugo.com/PAS_List.htmHomePage: http://www.1derful.info'I brake for pixels...'..

To me the biggest advantage of digital over film is the digital darkroom. I do have a film scanner but getting the pure digital image is so much faster and better..

So most of the things you list as advantages are non-issues. I avoid any sort of flex focus and would especially avoid face detection. Portrait, action and maybe flowing water modes would be handy sometimes for controlling the aperture in a pure P&S. Otherwise the scene modes seem to be eyewash. You cant do better for night photography than full manual controls IMO. I have no idea why you would want to diddle with changing the color of something on a little LCD screen when you can do it so easily with better control after it is on the computer..

What non-DSLRs do offer is carry-anywhere convenience in small cameras and decent aperture with good stabilized long zooms in larger cameras. You have to give up some image quality to get that though..

I spent most of a lifetime lugging around a film SLR and all the lenses and junk it needed to be truly versatile. Ive avoided that with digital and currently use a stabilized superzoom and a pocket digital. With a lot of work in Photoshop I can end up with images that are almost as good as I could get with a DSLR in most shooting situations. But it would be foolish to not understand that I could get better photographs in more situations with a bag full of DSLR stuff...

MWCT wrote:.

I'm just thinking about the numerous advantages a P&S offers overdSLR. Obviously the dSLR offers lens choices, higher qualityimages, and ability to obtain a shallow DOF, but at great expense.So here's to the P&S..

- more modes than most dSLRs (e.g. face detection, night portraitmode, flowers mode, trees mode, snow mode, beach mode, etc...).

I really don't consider this to be an advantage, it is a poor replacement for more flexible control..

- automatic sharpening, color enhancement, and red eye reduction(although I know some dSLRs offer this too).

I don't know of a dSLR that doesn't offer more control over these than a P&S, it just that most dSLR users prefer to do it post-production..

- wide range zoom lens (up to 18x in the Olympus, 12x in mostsuperzooms, and 3-6x is standard0 - the same range would cost afortune on dSLRs.

But no really wide angle without adapters. Wouldn't you just love it if someone came out with a P&S that did wide angles and another model that did really long telephoto..

I use a couple of dSLRs and a P&S. I really love the size of my Fuji F31fd, but size is about it..

Brian A...

I only use my SLR's when high speed is required (eg. weddings. sports or air shows), they're just way to heavy to carry around on holidays etc. I wouldn't be able to capture a shot such as this one with a P&S (jets travelling in opposite directions at high speed)http://www.pbase.com/duncanbristow/image/73381166.

However, when time is on your side, a P&S more than fills the bill and doesn't hurt your back.http://www.pbase.com/duncanbristow/spain2007Duncan Bristowhttp://www.pbase.com/duncanbristow..

Having gone from compact to SLR.. and not looked back - still use a compact once in a blue moon...

The only time my SLR's are in 'green box mode' is .... never... I have never used it.. and only used the 'preset modes' a few times... they simply don't give the results I'm looking for...

Yes, the superzoom compact has many advantages, especially for the casual shooter... the limitations make the compact less than useful for most of my work..

Peace,S.**My XT IS Full Frame APS-C/FF of course!*****So is my 5D 35mm/FF**..

Agree with most of the points raised here, although for my own requirements, I have recently joined the DSLR arena (400xti)..

Strange that the one P&S you have actually mentioned is the S3IS which to my mind is about the least typical P&S you could mention. Don't get me wrong, the S3 is a simply great camera, and will do a good job if left in auto, but over the 18 months I have owned one I have found from experience that the more manual control you exert over the S3, the better the results..

Have been seriously impressed with the 400xti simply because if fills the gaps where the S3 is weak (low light, DOF etc...) but that certainly doesn't mean my S3 gets retired to the cupboard. For most ordinary situations, slapping the S3 into Tv,Av or manual will give me results pretty damn close to the 400D with the kit lens..

Steve..

Well let ne say, the S3 IS is a very good P&S and I've never really used it in any mode except AV/TV/Nightshot/Night Portrait and Portrait, so I don't know how bad it is in Full Auto but I have no reason to doubt the claims that it is indeed very bad in that mode..

But it's very much in the realm of P&S and I think is reflective of what they either are or will soon be capable of. One thing that I didn't put on my list because I thought it was somewhat unique to the S3 IS and perhaps a few other brands is the ability to stitch panoramic landscapes together. That's one of my favorite tools in my S3 IS that simply isn't available in my dSLR..

However, it's not all roses in the P&S camp. Now that I've taken my first night shoot of a graduation event (outdoors, with floodlights provided), I will never ever do one again with a P&S. But thats for another thread, and not the point of this one ..

I just joined the SLR camp because I tired of pictures of where the subject was. The slow speed of the picture actually taking to when you push the button became a huge problem. I will still use the P & S, but for shooting moving subjects, the SLR is a must..