Why Point and Shoot?

This blog is intended to provide inspiration, instruction, and a space for constructive discussion of the art and craft of making nature, creative, and landscape images with today’s digital point and shoot cameras.

Why point and shoot? How can one of these little consumer toys hope to hold its head up in what was once the exclusive domain of the SLR (now DSLR), and even medium-format and 4×5 view cameras? Or to put in another way, “Why would any serious nature, creative, or landscape photographer choose a point and shoot camera as the primary tool?”

The answer is simple: because it works!

Browse the images uploaded to any image sharing service (flickr and its like) and you will be amazed at the quantity and the quality of the landscape, creative, and nature photography being done with digital point and shoot cameras today.

I’ve been using digital point and shoots since the first 2.1 mega-pixel models dropped below $500 in the early days of this decade, but my real conversion came when I made a conscious decision to carry only a tiny entry- level Sony P&S on a 10 day family exploration of Arizona…from the Grand Canyon in the north to Madera Canyon south of Tuscon. I brought back more satisfying images of those great landscapes with that little Sony than I had on a similar tip 20 years ago with a full 2 body, 5 lens SLR outfit. I had picked the camera for its somewhat unique zoom range: The 32mm to 96mm equivilent zoom was just right for scenery and family shots alike. But what was really impressive to me was how the camera caught the quality of the light and the textures of the landscape, image after image: a quality that, in my experience, film too often misses.

Digital point and shoots have several features, when you stop and think about it, that make them effective tools for nature, creative, and landscape photography.

1. P&Ss have perhaps the most intelligent and accurate exposure systems yet devised. Mult-zone measurement, along with sophisticated real-time processing, yield satisfying exposures in even the most difficult of situations…and, for those few truly impossible situations, most P&Ss have center, and even movable-spot metering as alternatives.
2. The program mode on most P&S models allows easy “program shift” to control depth of field or reduce motion blur without resorting to direct aperture or shutter speed control.
3. And, if you are into programs, most P&Ss have a wide variety of scene-specific settings for special situations.
4. Most P&Ss have highly sophisticated auto-focus that make them as quick and responsive in the field as most entry level DSLRs.
5. Many have truly amazing macro capability. My current camera focuses to 2 cm at the wide angle end of the zoom. Most will get down under an inch.
6. P&Ss’ live-view LCDs make them act like miniature view cameras, allowing, when the mood takes you, thoughtful and careful composition.
7. At the upper end of the P&S range, electronic eye-level viewfinders give them similar handling to a DSLR.
8. Some P&Ss have articulated LCDs that even go the view camera one better…allowing viewing and composition at all sorts of odd angles.
9. At the high end, the built in zoom on a P&S often covers the moderate wide-angle to moderate telephoto range in a way that would require at least 3, maybe 5, lenses on a DSLR. Even the little 1 to 3 zooms that are pretty standard cover the most-used range of focal lengths (and the most often encountered photo opportunities).
10. P&Ss are small and easy to carry…so you will have the camera with you when you see the image. I remember how much my 35mm SLR outfit weighed at the end of 10 mile hike. My superzoom weighs less than a pound, and, somehow doesn’t get any heavier by the end of the day. Amazing.
11. P&Ss are fun! They set something free (at least in me…) that I came close to losing somewhere along the way with the more sophisticated, serious hardware. I take more pictures and enjoy photography more. This is a very good thing!

So, P&S landscapers, creative photographers, and nature photographers…it is time to come out in the open and play…time to shake off the real or imagined stigma of our equipment choice and proudly proclaim our joy in creating images with the tools we choose.

Watch this space!