Years ago when I did 35 mm pictures on vacations, I always liked having several lens and a Zoom lens. Most of the megapixel cameras do NOT have changable lens and many don't have any optical zoom. I like the idea of light weight (and lower price), but I'm not sure I'm going to be happy with no zoom. I always seemed to use the zoom a lot with 35 mm. Have other people who used a lot of zoom in the past, found they are happy living without it? Most of my photography will be of vacations.

-- Jack Hewlett (jackhewlett@hotmail.com), April 29, 1999

Answers

Yea - for vacation pix it is probably fine... well sort of. The more you zoom on a non-optical zoom camera, the less resolution you will get in the image. It's like cropping your 35mm negatives more and more - yea you get closer, but the grain just gets bigger. One of the reasons I went for the Sony is the 14X optical zoom - I wind up with pretty good resolution throughout the range. There are certainly better cameras out there - I just liked the other gadgets. If, indeed, you are just taking vacation snaps then, by all means grab the simplest lightest thing you can. But if you want to capture some really nice photos of that sunset, the babe on the beach (that would be your wife - right?) or the license plate of the truck that just hit you - go for a more constant resolution camera with an optical zoom. There are some nice small cameras with optical zoom - though they are limited in focal range. Some have a hybrid optical and electronic - which is a nice compromise between the two.

Des

-- Dan Desjardins (dan.desjardins@avstarnews.com), April 29, 1999.

You may want to borrow a non-zoom point and shoot(or buy a cheap one) with an equivalent lens (or just use a close existing lens length on your current gear). You're looking to see if you can live with it. Concentrate on the lens issues (vertical vs horizontal holds, subjects and distances, etc. more so than the actual quality of the prints so cheap is OK for this. You loose a certain amount of flexibility and there will be some subjects that you simply will not be able to get (well), but maybe you can live with it. This was the situation when I chose to take my Nikon Actiontouch or Fuji HDS "waterproof" cameras on backpacking or cross country ski trips while on vacations. They are/were fixed focal length moderate wide angles. (The small autofocus zone of the Nikon caused more trouble than the lack of zoom. It was tight enough to focus between individuals in a close group shot and focus on something in the background causing poorly focused pictures.) But I usually had more gear in camp or car on my trips to cover other opportunities. I'm holding off on a digital camera until the prices of the better cameras with zoom come down. I don't think I could live with a fixed focal length camera as my sole camera at this point.

-- Craig Gillette (cgillette@thegrid.net), April 30, 1999.

There a several digital cameras with a least a 3X optical zoom. I personally have the Epson 750z w/3X optical zoom and 2X digital. I swore I would never use the digital zoom, but reasently I found the combined 6X was nice for long range outdoor action shots. The epson also has another nice feature which is a solar backlight LCD viewer. Being able to use the LCD viewer in an outdoor setting without the penalty of battery drain for backlighting. Also intense sunlight doesn't washout the LCD viewer since intense sun also make the backlighting brighter. I have also been amazed at how much I use the LCD viewer in general. I seem to get the shot I want better with it than the optical viewfinder. The only weakness I have found is short flash range. I am still working on a slave flash arrangements to make up for it.

-- Bob G. (rgreg88721@hotmail.com), April 30, 1999.