Beyond the Megapixel

With megapixels quickly becoming passe', the next frontier in point-and-shoot technology is high zoom -- not some rinky-dink 5x or 8x, but Really High Zoom. Like 18x or, in the case of Olympus, a whopping 20x.

And with Panasonic, Fuji and Sony already in the game, Nikon's new, 18x (and for those of you who have to know, 10.1-megapixel) Coolpix P80 completes the circle of top manufacturers with an impressive high-zoom offering.

So what does it all mean? Everything, for enthusiasts who aren't up for toting around a digital SLR plus additional lenses whenever they think the perfect picture might present itself (like a ballgame, or the beach). It's a boon for the casual photographer, too, since tweaking the settings on these models is far easier than manipulating the bells and whistles of a DSLR. Throw in the fact(s) that most high-zoom cameras are fairly compact, feature image stabilization, Face Detection and a plethora of Auto modes, and you have plenty of great reasons to venture beyond the world of pocket-sized point-and-shoots.

--Chris C.