Definition: A point and shoot digital camera is a beginner-level model that often automatically controls all settings for shooting the photograph, such as deciding whether to fire the flash or increase the shutter speed. Point and shoot models are the most affordable types of digital cameras.
Point and shoot digital cameras can be almost any size and shape, although most of today's models are a little larger than a deck of playing cards. A newcomer to digital photography should be able to pick up a point and shoot model and immediately begin capturing digital images of a reasonable quality. Some point and shoot models allow the photographer to manually control a few settings, but the cameras are meant to be used mainly in automatic mode. Point and shoot models should have easy-to-use menus and should make sharing photographs easy.
The term point and shoot comes from having the ability to point the digital camera at the subject and shooting the image in an easy-to-use fashion.
