Digital cameras are categorized as compact, superzoom, bridge, system and single-lens reflex models.

Modern compact cameras have a small viewfinder, but are compensated with a large zoom of about 15x. Typical resolutions vary from 10-14 megapixels. They are also provided with wide angle lenses, a large display.

Though manual functions are rare in these cameras, a large depth of field adds to their arsenal of features and is responsible for its increasing demand.

Superzoom or bridge cameras are intermediate between SLRs and compact cameras with a general zoom of upto 30x and manual settings. Add on features include separate flash, electronic viewfinder and a storage format of RAW. Additionally, a manual zoom ring allows finer adjustments in the focusing to be done.

System cameras, specifically the Micro Four Thirds system cameras (MFT) pioneered by Panasonic and Olympus have a live view on their display and a larger image sensor as compared to a compact camera, and comparable to that of an SLR.

The resolution is about 12 mp. As they have no mirrors they are lighter than SLR. Single-lens reflex cameras with APS-C sensors are compact but larger in size than system cameras with interchangeable lenses. The large image sensors in these cameras allow better picture quality.