Difference Between a Digital Cameras and DSLRs

A friend of mine once asked me the difference between DSLRs and digital cams and I replied, "Digicams? Get a life dude!" Just kidding. Well the major difference between a digital cams and DSLRs is in the way of viewing the picture or the scene. Digital cams use LCD or an Electronic Viewfinder while the DSLR or the so called Digital Single Lens Reflex have the optical viewfinders, this means it consist of a return mirror and a pentaprism.

Another difference between the two includes the chip size, Most DSLRs use an imaging.
There are DSLRs with 6 Megapixel chips, and the digital cams with 8 Megapixel, as far as I know, Megapixels are only part of the image quality, and frequently not important. The Size and weight between the two are also different.

DSLR are excellent in image quality at low ISO level, lower noise at a high ISO level, have a wide range of exchangeable lenses, the availability of Image lenses, much brighter and clearer viewfinder compared to the digital cams. DSLR have a high frames rates even if you are in a RAW mode settings and allowing rapid shooting without freezing

Digital Cameras are smaller and lighter weight. The zoom lens is included depending on the price. No shutter and mirror noise. Macro shooting accessibility without other lenses depending on the model; Tilting and revolving the LCDs are allow for framing purposes at short angles. Depth of field at any given image exaggeration and the switching between LCD and EVF is slow.

DSLR don't have real-time histogram, the sensor dust is always a problem, shutter and mirror noise depends on the situation. Large size, particularly with long lenses while digicams have more issues on viewfinder, slower autofocus, poor and noisy image quality when the ISO is greater than 100, limited multi-frame shooting. Digicams are slow in focus and can't shoot quickly. Digital Camera freezes for about 6-15 seconds after each RAW shot

The next question was which is better in image quality, a photo shoot in 8MP digital camera or the 6MP DSLR? The Image quality is not an issue, 6 or 8 Megapixels, a digicam or a DSLR, any of these two cameras can produce excellent prints.