Compact Digital Camera is lightweight and small enough to fit in your pocket.  It is smaller than point and shoot camera and do not have interchangeable lens or a lot of manual controls like SLR camera. Top compact camera is simple in design and easy to use.  The weight of compact camera can vary from around .28 lbs for an Ultracompact to .36 lbs for a heavier compact.  The depth of compact camera can vary from 0.7" for ultracompacts to a bit over 1."  The resolution in Megapixels has been steadily increasing and the standard for a top compact is around 12 Megapixels today.  Canon continues to dominate the Compact Camera group with their PowerShot SD Series, although the Panasonic Lumix Series and Sony Cybershot Series are also very good Compact Digital Cameras.  The price of top Compact cameras ranges from $200 to $400.

Point and Shoot Digital Camera is basic and easy to use and also relatively inexpensive.  It is bigger than Compact (but usually a bit cheaper) and they do not have interchangeable lenses or as much manual control as SLRs do.  Top Point and Shoot Digital Camera weigh 0.5-1.5lbs and has a depth of 1.5" to 3" and so It doesn't fit nicely in the pocket like a Compact.  Top Point and Shoot camera has a resolution in the 6-10 Megapixel range.  A special class of Point and Shoot camera has powerful optical zoom in the 10-12X range for zooming in on distant images and are called Superzooms.  Canon dominates the Point and Shoot category with their Powershot S and A Series.  Sony is a distant second and Kodak and Panasonic even further behind.

SLR (single-lens reflex) are more sophisticated cameras that have interchangeable lenses and more manual controls.  They are bigger than Compact and Point and Shoot Cameras and harder to use and more expensive but they also take the highest quality images and are often, but not always used by more serious photographers.  Top Digital SLR (dSLR) cameras weigh between 1 and 2 lbs and have a depth of around 3" which makes them far too big too big to fit in a pocket like a Compact.  Entry level dSLR cameras have a resolution in the 6-10 Megapixle range and optical zoom in the 3-4X range.  Entry dSLR cameras cost between $500-$1000 depending on the quality of the camera, extra features, and the quality of the lens kit.  Top Semi-Pro dSLRs range in price from $1000-$3000 and Pro SLRs can cost more than some cars.  Canon makes the leading entry SLR with the three generation old Digital Rebel Series but they actually have serious competition in the SLR category with Nikon which makes the D Series.  Pentax and Olympus also make good quality dSLR cameras.