Why don't Canon make cameras with better optical zoom?

Question

I love Canon cameras, I think they are the best but the lack of a good optical zoom is really letting them down IMHO. In the consumer and prosumer ranges they aren't nearly as good as some of the other brands with 10x or 12x or even 18x zoom.

Why, Canon why??

I love the features of the S3 IS (yes I had done extensive research prior to posting and should've explained more).

The S3 IS had every feature I was looking for EXCEPT the 3:2 ratio. It only has 4:3 ratio, which is a pain in the butt for printing photos.

I'm talking about the G7 in my post, which is also pretty perfect EXCEPT the optical zoom only goes to 6x. If it was at least 10x I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

But I love the swinging LCD screen on the S3. I wish somehow the features from both could be combined... ahhhh.. time will tell :)

Answer 1

It seems to me that the megapixel count and the optical zoom count are being upped mostly for the marketing departments. These things are used as benchmark numbers that anyone can understand. More means better.
Except... that´s not always true.
With megapixels, consumer grade lenses only resolve about 8 megapixels worth of information. So a 10 megapixel sensor behind a cheap lens is wasted. It can even HURT performance, because more megapixels on a tiny sensor means that the photosites become smaller and this creates more noise at high ISO.
With optical zoom, we´ve gone from 8x zoom to 10x, then models like the Canon S3 have 12x, and the new Olympus SP550 UZ has a whopping 18x optical zoom. But again, more is NOT always better. Read the review for the Olympus. You pay a price in terms of image quality, low light sensitivity, and auto-focus performance. If you look at professional quality zoom lenses for dSLR cameras, they cost +$1000 each and they have 3x zoom TOPS. 17-55mm, 70-200mm, etc. When you add more zoom, you get extra convenience but you sacrifice tons of performance.
You can´t have it both ways. And you shouldn´t believe that a bigger number automatically means a better product.
I´m sure that Canon will follow suit with some insane 20x zoom camera. It will probably sell like crazy, too. But I wouldn´t touch it with a 10 foot pole.

Answer 2

OMG's answer is excellent.

Have you not heard of the Canon Powershot S3-IS? It's an excellent camera with 12X optical zoom. My daughter has the S2-IS (also 12X) and loves it.

How about the A710IS (6X), G7 (6X), or the new TX-1 (10X)?

Canon is very well-represented and well-respected in the high zoom catagory. And, they have a good "IS" to go with it.

Answer 3

my friend has a 7mp canon that looks the same, the 640 has a bigger screen. and that's one fantastic camera! a solid camera by a solid company, you can't go wrong. I sell this camera at my work for $485 CDN, I think I should go over the border and get one! But watch out for the memory card, each 10mp pic will be 5MB, so a 512MB memory card will hold 100 photos. I would recommend taking 10mp photos and shrinking them later on your computer, no point getting a 10mp camera and taking 4mp pics

Answer 4

I don't know what you been looking at but the "A" line is 4x opitcal while everyone else is 3x (A530,A540, A550, A560), then A710 I beleive is 8 or 10x.

Then there is the S3 at 12x.

Answer 5

their high zoom cameras are excellent

Answer 6

OMG, I ♥ PONIES!!1's answer is spot on!