| While
most point-and-shoot digital cameras remain mired in the 3x to 4x zoom world,
there's a new breed of bytecam that offers more than four times the magnification
of their slimmer counterparts while maintaining a compact form. Among these
super zoom packages are the Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18
and the Olympus SP-560UZ ($350-$544). Olympus
is no newcomer to the superzoom category. It has recognized for a long
time that there's a class of point-and-shoot shutterbug that longs for
a long lens in their photographic endeavors. That spirit continues today
with the 560UZ which sports an 18x optical zoom that's the equivalent
of a 27-486 millimeter lens in 35 millimeter circles. Moreover, Olympus
has loaded its new superzoom with a raft of features including face detection,
shadow adjustment, dual image stabilization and a staggering array of
shooting modes for just about any photographic situation a snapper may
encounter. |
Introduction
