Originally posted by Laurentiu Cristofor And this criteria also is nice because it is sufficient to eliminate any larger sensor cameras too - because they all provide manual controls.
Originally posted by audiobomber Manual controls mean nothing. The Canon A590 shown above is a good example. Manual controls, but clearly a point & shoot with serious limitations in DR and noise performance due to sensor size.
I lean more towards physical vs control limitations. So my DSC-V1 qualifies! The near-twin to that DSC-V1 is the DSC-P10. We bought one of each at the same time. Same sensor and software, same scene and image options. Both have the equivalent of Green and P modes. But the V1 also has shutter and aperture priority, and manual exposure, and the NightShot feature. If I leave the V1 in Green or P, they produce substantially the same image at the same focal length. The optics differ a bit, but I've been able to stitch-together a mixture of photos from both.
With anything more than the most minimal camera, there are some controls that can significantly affect the image. That minimal P10 of course has the Scene selections; but both also allow menu control of ISO, EV, WB, contrast, sharpness, aspect/resolution, bracketing, burst, spot|matrix metering, focus presets, AF modes, filter effects, etc. These offer a bit more control than a box cam, eh? But that's pretty much what's on most P&S's I can think of.
So if we're looking at controls to define a P&S, we need a definition: What is 'advanced'? Just the priority and manual exposure controls? What else?