One of the things I love about my new camera is the 10x optical zoom. I know enough about digital cameras to know that optical zoom is good, while digital zoom compromises the shot and isn't really that great. My last camera only had 3x optical zoom, so I was pretty limited in the shots I could get.
Here's an example of what I'm able to shoot now. Another shot from yesterday...see those trees at the closer edge of the pond here, on the middle/upper right of the shot? There's an obelisk there called Perry's Monument. (For those War of 1812 history buffs, that would be one Oliver Hazard Perry, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," and all that.) Anyway, the monument is towards the end of that stand of trees and you can barely see it in this wide shot.
But at full zoom from the same spot:
OK so it's not like you're right there or anything, but it's pretty darn good!
I managed to get what I thought was another pretty good shot. I was aiming almost straight up, trying to get a cardinal at the tippy-top of this huge tree, and it was a bit windy, so I got some camera shake. I need to work on the sharpness of my image (or start using a tripod), but still...I was pretty impressed!
