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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RJM" data-source="post: 1415130" data-attributes="member: 66340">A few weeks ago, I walked our local seaside park with a new friend who was using the Canon SX1 IS optical 20x super zoom. I was so impressed with the pics he was getting from such a tiny camera that I went and bought one for my wife. She likes nature photography but never wanted to carry a lens larger than a 200mm lens on her Nikon D40. Yesterday was her first day with it.  I think this camera offers a very compelling alternative to dSLRs with long telephotos lens in good light. I was especially impressed with the "trick" digital zoom between 20x-80x (80x or fl=2240mm!) that imposes no loss of image quality when shot at 640x480 rez. Of course, the EVF and relatively slow focusing imposes some shooting penalties. But once you learn to work within the camera's limitations I think it can take some very nice pics! Even better now that Canon has announced RAW support in a firmware update due in mid-March! The pics below were adjusted in Canon's Zoom browser. Title reflects effective focal length of the shot. Anything over 500mm used the digital zoom.</blockquote>