Super Zoom Digital Cameras, 2009

All-in-one Design
Most of the cameras are designed along the lines of a traditional SLR camera. This enables you to get a good grip on them when you take a shot. Generally they are also lighter and more compact than an SLR fitted with a tele lens, so are easier to transport, store, and carry around. Super zoom digital cameras are still relatively easy to use and are an ideal choice for capturing detailed close-ups that you simply can't get from a camera with a 3X or 4X optical zoom lens.

Versatile Focal Range
You will get a digital camera that is versatile enough not only for portraits, group shots, nearby buildings or landscapes, but also frame-filling shots of distant subjects: the goalie at a junior soccer game, an eagle on a high branch, or a tiger roaring at the zoo. The Olympus 26x zoom, for example, gives you an equivalent of a 626mm lens on a film camera, well into what is termed as super-telephoto range.

Advanced Control Functions
Almost all the super zoom cameras offer fully manual exposure and other advanced functions which are easy to use and manipulate. This includes aperture and shutter priority and a wider range of features on the more expensive models. Super zooms are suitable for people who see photography as a hobby rather than someone who is looking for a digital camera to take a few snapshots with.

Excellent Image Quality
Image from super zoom digital cameras are no slouch either. Being in a very competitive segment, most manufacturers tries their best to provide each of their products with optimum quality specification and image quality is no exception. It is worth pointing out that a few super zoom digital cameras suffer from purple fringing once the zoom lens gets close to its full extension.

Smaller Sized Sensor Chips
Compact digital cameras traditionally have a sense chip that's very small in size when compared to a chip from a digital SLR, even when manufacturers claim that ther cameras have 10, 12 or even 14 "megapixels" sensors. The more these cells are jammed on the chip, the more "noise" or tiny electrical charges they tend to generate. "Noise" will manifests itself as random dots, similar to the grain on film and may becomes more visible with higher ISO settings, typically from 400 ISO and above.

Electronic Viewfinder
Super zooms are normally equipped with an electronic viewfinder, a tiny LCD screen that you hold up to your eye, providing through the lens viewing for a more accurate view of the subject, just like a SLR. An electronic viewfinder, however, does not provide a view that's as crisp and bright as the one you get with a regular optical viewfinder. And the electronic image can be "jumpy." In low light situations, electronic viewfinders provide a dimmer view of the subject, making it more difficult to accurately frame the subject.

Autofocus Lag
Not all super zoom digital cameras include high-speed tracking focus system that is designed to continuously follow-focus a rapidly (or erratically) moving subject. That can be a problem when you are trying a head on shot where the subject id approaching you directly. In sports photography where you will most probably be shooting from the sidelines at a subject that is passing across your line of view, continuous autofocus will not be a problem because the camera-to-subject distance is not changing rapidly

Shutter Lag
Super zoom digital cameras may tend to have longer shutter-lag at very long focal lengths because of the longer time required to to set focus, exposure, white balance, etc.. Newer generation super zoom have tried to overcome this with special features and seting that can help reduce the problem.

Image stabilization
When you use cameras with long lenses there is a tendency for camera shake to become an issue, and is accentuated further in low light situation and any time when you are using slow shutter speeds. Manufacturers have attempted to overcome these by introducing various forms of image stabilization to help reduce camera shake, image blur and what have you. The best solution is often to use a tripod whenever you can.