Can I get a digital camera with a long zoom or wide-angle lenses or with a powerful flash?
Most consumer grade ($300-$2000) digital cameras have either a fixed focal length wide angle lens, two times optical zoom (approximately 35-80mm lens, a three times zoom, up to five times or even 10 times zoom!) Some cameras in this class will use a Teleconverters, fish-eye converter, or wide angle converter lens to extend this range. A few cameras use a digital zoom, which electronically enhances the optical zoom. It gives a similar effect but image quality is lost depending upon the amount of enhancement. Professional SLR (Single Lens Reflex) digital cameras with interchangeable lenses offer much more versatility. They use the same auto focus lenses as the film SLR cameras. The focal range of the lens on a digital camera is 1.5X to 2.5X that of a lens on a traditional film camera. For example, a 100mm lens would be 150mm on the digital camera. These lenses also typically offer a somewhat better image quality and are superior for available light shooting in many cases. All professiona
