So you are into your DSLR or SLR, and cannot imagine using another camera… especially a point and shoot camera, right? Well they are often a good thing to have on hand in addition to your DSLR .

Point and shoots (P&S) aren’t ideal for learning photography. In fact they are a bad choice. Why? Because you can’t do many important things on most point and shoots (like change lenses, learn to manually focus a lens, manually meter easily, change shutter speeds easily etc.) that are essential when learning photography.

But – for someone that already knows photography, a point and shoot is very convenient due to its way smaller size. Many photographers want to have a camera with them at all times because there are always photographic possibilities around us.

Would I ever bring a point and shoot to a paying gig?‚ Maybe as a 3rd emergency backup. The cliche about not bringing a knife to a gunfight holds true for paying gigs and cheap cameras. But when I’m not shooting, I want to relax without all the gear. I still need to carry protection (the P&S ) though, just in case.

Which point and shoot should you get?‚ There’s way too many out there to list. One that I have my eye on that seems like it may be tasty treat is the Canon PowerShot G11. It’s supposed to be out in October. Buying/ordering through the B&H link above helps support the site. Thx.