Types of Cameras

 

Digital SLRs (Single Lens Reflex Cameras or DSLRs)

• DSLR stands for “Digital Single Lens Reflex”. In simple language, a DSLR is a digital camera that uses a mirror mechanism to either reflect light from a camera lens to an optical viewfinder (which is an eyepiece on the back of the camera that one looks through to see what they are taking a picture of) or let light fully pass onto the image sensor (which captures the image) by moving the mirror out of the way.

Compact Digital Cameras (aka Point and Shoot)

• A point and shoot camera is sometimes called a fixed lens camera, because the point and shoot cannot change lenses. The lenses are built directly into the camera body. A point and shoot camera also is very easy to use, as it doesn’t offer quite the level of manual control options that a DSLR camera offers, which is where it receives its name. You just point the camera at the subject and shoot in fully automatic mode.

Bridge Cameras (aka Advanced Compact Cameras)

• Bridge cameras are cameras that fill the niche between the single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs) and the point-and-shoot camera.

Mirror-less Interchangeable Lens Cameras

• A mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) is a digital camera that has a lens mount like a conventional single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, but uses a digital display system rather than an optical mirror and optical viewfinder. The name includes “mirrorless” because it does not have an optical mirror as in a conventional SLR, and “interchangeable lens” because the user can mount different lenses on the camera in order to customize the camera’s optical characteristic.