Are electronic still cameras the same as a digital camera?

Florencio Dingle: Yes. Electronic still camera was an early term for what is now called a digital camera. It was a more accurate term, too, since it described the essential characteristic of such a camera, namely, the electronic image sensor.

Hal Rouse: There are fully automatic 35mm film point-and-shoot cameras that won't perform without batteries. Those are electronic but not digital. There are even (officially designated) digital film SLRs (yes, digital and film at the same, read on) that had LCD status screens (hence the digital label) that also didn't work without batteries but they don't produce digital (electronic) pictures unless you scan the film or negatives (which was unheard of then during its time, hence the meaning of digital is in another context). These are the precursors of the dSLR cameras we have today. If you still don't get it (as others don't, I'm sure), my answer is no, electronic still cameras are not necessarily the same as digital cameras.S! o what makes a digital camera? The digital sensor. Again, to repeat, a camera with a digital sensor is a digital camera. To expound, a camera that doesn't use film but records the image eelctronically through a digital sensor is called a digital camera.Whew!...Show more

Teodoro Lamond: So was the camera Steven Sasson invented the digital camera?

Claire Billegas: In the early days, around 1990, such cameras were described as 'electronic'. Now they are called 'digital'.