How to choose a superzoom digital camera

Posted on 6 Aug 2009 at 16:05

You may sometimes hear cameras being referred to as 'superzooms'. Although we consider them to be essentially the same as compact cameras, they will appeal to some buyers.

Superzooms, not surprisingly, have much longer zoom lenses than standard digital compact cameras. Although they often look similar to DSLRs, their internal design is more akin to a digital compact.

Superzoom lenses vary in magnification from around 7x to 18x, but while these let you take shots that are impossible to achieve with a compact camera, they can often leave shots blurred due to camera shake when using maximum zoom, especially in poor light. Some have image-stabilisation systems to try to eliminate camera shake, but a  tripod is the only guaranteed path to sharp photos in  low light.

Superzooms also share the very small image sensor designs of compact models, which means the absolute quality sometimes isn’t as high as it could be, particularly at high ISO levels.

Most superzooms offer more control than compacts, though, allowing you full manual control over shutter and aperture settings. The majority also have more advanced features including manual white balance and histograms, all of which help you to take better photos.

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