Live Preview digital cameras or LPDs are also often referred to as Conventionally-Generated Live Preview digital cameras or CGLPDs. These are cameras which possess an electronic screen where one can have a preview of the images before capturing the moment. The term ‘conventionally-generated’ here holds a special significance as it is used to refer to deliberate formation of the image over the image sensor via the objective lens. The electronic screens use the latest flat screen technologies like the liquid crystal display or LCD and the electronic viewfinder or the EVF. However, it is necessary to note that while there are various kinds of digital cameras which are known by their names and sub divisions on the basis of their technical differences, LPD cameras are not always considered as a separate sub category. These LPD cameras can be of two kinds primarily, the compact digital cameras and the bridge digital cameras, though they are not entirely distinct from each other. Of these two, it is the bridge digital cameras which are most popular and they are more enhanced and also more expensive than its counterpart, the compact digital cameras.

All the latest versions of LPDs i.e. the bridge and compact digital cameras have a movie mode allowing video recordings though it must be admitted that LPDs are misfit in case of sports photography because of its slow start up and shutter speed and therefore it may not always be possible to capture the opportune moment in a live preview digital camera. Most of these live preview digital cameras have small sensors, though some may be supplied with larger sensors like the Sony R1. Most of the digital SLR cameras today have incorporated the live preview digital technology for its functioning and several such cameras have been manufactured by well-known world companies like Olympus, Nikon, Panasonic and Canon.