Advanced Features of Point-and-Shoot Cameras
As point-and-shoot cameras move up in price, they offer both better technology and more features. Images taken with these cameras can, and often do, rival those created with the best SLRs. For some users, the advanced features offered by top-of-the-line point-and-shoot cameras are well worth the high price tags these cameras often come with. For occasional users, or those who are only buying a point-and-shoot as a backup for their SLR cameras, the additional bells and whistles on sophisticated point-and-shoots may simply not be worth the additional expense.
Instead of single-focal-length lenses, more advanced point-and-shoot cameras often have lenses that offer a choice of two focal lengths for more versatility. They might also have zoom lenses that offer even more opportunities to fill the frame with the subject. Zoom lenses available on point-and-shoot cameras vary. They can do a good job with portraits or capture a crowd of people in a small space. Point-and-shoots with dual focal length or zoom lenses often have real image viewfinders, which move along with the lenses and provide a better idea of what the final image will look like, enabling the photographer to accomplish better framing.
The more advanced point-and-shoot cameras often offer flash modes that provide more control over the camera's built-in flash. Flash-off mode lets you cancel the flash when you don't want it to automatically fire. This is great for taking night shots or for taking photos in places where flash is not allowed. The use of fill flash softens ugly shadows that shooting in daylight can cause, or helps in creating a more evenly lit image.
Nighttime flash mode combines flash with a longer shutter speed. The flash lights up the objects close to the camera, and the longer shutter speed captures the ambient light in the scene.
Many point-and-shoot cameras let you optimize their settings to match your general or specific shooting situations. These shooting modes are sometimes very specific. Single frame versus continuous shooting, for instance, lets you choose between a mode that fires the camera once each time the shutter button is pushed and one that fires the camera and shoots pictures as long as the shutter is held down.
Other shooting modes available on some point-and-shoot cameras include:
Portrait mode. This option presets lens length and exposure for head-and-shoulder shots. It tells the camera your subject is close to the lens and you want all the distant scenery to be out of focus. It does this by using a large aperture and focusing on the nearest subject.
Backlight mode. Backlighting (in which the subject has bright light coming from behind it) can fool an automatic camera into adjusting the exposure so the background is correctly exposed, but the foreground, where your main subject is, is way too dark. This mode compensates for backlit scenes.
Panorama mode. This mode sets the camera for wide-angle landscape shots or action photos.
Nighttime portrait. This mode combines red-eye reduction with nighttime flash mode.
Landscape mode. This mode tells the autofocus camera to focus at infinity, no matter what. It won't try to focus on an unimportant object close to the camera. You would use this if people, foliage, or other nearby objects occupied a part of your frame that the camera would ordinarily focus on as the main subject.
