Are Point-and-Shoot Cameras Still a Thing?

With the proliferation and improvement of cellphone cameras, even the idea of a stand-alone point-and-shoot camera is becoming obsolete. Or is it? Despite the inarguable decline in sales of the traditional point-and-shoot digital camera and its decreasing number on store shelves and in jacket pockets, there are still cameras defined as "point-and-shoot" that are solid sellers, and those that offer high-end features. As Allan Weitz points out on this episode, almost all cameras can be set to a "point-and-shoot" mode, but the compact digital cameras that made up the bulk of camera sales five years ago are now struggling to find a place in the market and the trend seems to be that they are diversifying their feature sets and finding niches in which to remain viable. For example, "tough" waterproof cameras and long zoom "bridge" cameras are selling well, and large sensor point-and-shoots like the Fujifilm X100F and the Sony RX100 series, are very popular.

On today's podcast, we welcome B&H expert and host of Lens Therapy Live on Instagram, Chris Williams, to the studio to talk about point-and-shoot cameras. We discuss which models are still selling and why, which features are appearing and which disappearing and the photographers to whom these features appeal. In the second half of the show, we go over exemplary cameras from each of the point-and-shoot categories and speculate on the future of this once beloved camera type.

Guest: Chris Williams