Bridge digital cameras

Bridge digital cameras refer to a kind of live preview digital cameras or LPDs. The live preview digital cameras are those which have an electronic screen where it is possible to view the images before they are captured finally. Bridge digital cameras are an enhanced variety of these live preview digital cameras and they are so called as they are at a median zone in terms of functioning forming a bridge between the DSLR or digital single lens reflex cameras and the compact digital cameras. In terms of size, the bridge digital cameras can be compared to the smallest version of the DSLR cameras and also possess larger lenses. Most of these bridge cameras possess a CCD image sensor and a single fixed lens which cannot be changed. The CCD sensors in the bridge cameras are usually smaller than those of the DSLR cameras though at times some of them may contain larger sensors. The presence of a single lens allows enhanced zooming quality and longer focal lengths thus ensuring premium quality photographs and images.

However, some recent models of bridge digital cameras released by Sony reveal certain differences having electronic viewfinders and larger CMOS image sensors instead of the CCD sensors which were used earlier. Apart from the use of the electronic viewfinder or the EVF, LCD or liquid crystal display are the common screen types in the bridge digital cameras and all bridge digital cameras possess LCD screens and the EVF or electronic viewfinder and the OVF or the optical viewfinder are often present as supplementary. The absence of any mirror in the LPD cameras allows the non-blockage of images formed by the lens over the image sensors. Most importantly the preview function which is the most important characteristic of these LPD cameras allows witnessing all the possibilities and displaying function before capturing the image.

LPD cameras are often critiqued for their low duration of battery life and inefficiency of the electronic screens compared to the DSLR cameras.