PnC vs DSLR

JohnN

JohnN

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Hi,

The other day a friend of mine (knowing I have a fair bit of kit) said, so what can you take pictures of that a top of the line point and click cant.

Well apart from birds in flight I struggled.

Can you guys explain better because its been a while since I looked at a really good point and click and wonder if technology has caught up to the point where he might just be right!

Ta..
 
JohnN said:
Hi,

The other day a friend of mine (knowing I have a fair bit of kit) said, so what can you take pictures of that a top of the line point and click cant.

Well apart from birds in flight I struggled.

Can you guys explain better because its been a while since I looked at a really good point and click and wonder if technology has caught up to the point where he might just be right!

Ta..
Click to expand...

For me it's not a question of "what can you take pictures of that a top of the line point and click can't?" but what quality output do you want to achieve. The whole point of an SLR is the fact that it's a system base, designed to fit specialist lenses and other accessories to. That combined with much larger sensors is the difference between a point and shoot camera and SLR.

That said of course it is "only" equipment, give a top photographer a point and shoot and they'll still produce creative results.
 
It's not so much 'things' you can / can't shoot, it's the shooting experience and functionality. You get massive depth of field on compacts, limited dynamic range, poor iso performance over about 400, no choice of lenses other than the one that's built in (therefore you can't go super wide or super long) and doubtless many others.
 
viewfromthenorth said:
It's not so much 'things' you can / can't shoot, it's the shooting experience and functionality. You get massive depth of field on compacts, limited dynamic range, poor iso performance over about 400, no choice of lenses other than the one that's built in (therefore you can't go super wide or super long) and doubtless many others.
Click to expand...
This. It's all down to ability to take pictures and the resultant quality over a wider range of conditions/situations.
 
As above (mostly), it's less about the range of subjects and more about the qualities (not necessarily quality) of the finished image. There are very few things that can be done with a DSLR that can't be done with a compact/PnC (even off-camera flash is possible), but there are circumstances where one form factor of camera is better than the other. Including circumstances when a PnC is preferable to a DSLR.
 
Interesting stuff - so what is considered the top of the line point and shoot (or bridge I guess), it would be interesting to see if some of these quality sites compare the two as at some point you would imagine someone would.
 
The various mirrorless system cameras are filling the gap between P&S and DSLR. As these mature the dividing line will become more and more blurred. I don't think pocketable compact cameras will disappear but bridge cameras might well do so.
 
Top of the line point and shoots are the canon g12, panasonic lx5 and nikon p7100, although the fuji x10 has just gate crashed the party. Not sure about bridge cameras. Point and shoots like these still have their place as a complement to slr's, I have used an LX3 to complement my slr for several years, as it's size and simplicity are what's needed in many situations, rather than the bulk of an slr and lens.
 
Thanks again, hopefully I'll never have to sell up, but should I have to I'd not want to give up all together, just downgrade.
 
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