I have seen conflicting reports on the web as to whether the Cannon Powershot A5 has Zoom (digital) or not. A lot of the spec sheets have ZOOM marked "YES", but then don't mention it in the reviews. From everything I have read, this is the camera I want, but I definitely want zoom capability.

I had an Olympus 220DL and enjoyed it for a year, but recently dropped and broke it. It costs more to repair it than to buy a new one, so I want to upgrade.

Any comments would be appreciated. I want to get one this week. Alternatives I looked at were the Kodak D210 plus and the Fuji 700. Neither of them sound as appealling as the Cannon A5.

Rick

-- Rick McDannel (rmcdannel@thompsoncoburn.com), January 18, 1999

Answers

Hi, I don't know the answer, but I do know than digital zoom don't make much sense on a digital camera. The Canon A5 is great. I highly recomment it!

-- Oscar (Hoof@wins.uva.nl), January 19, 1999.

The A5 currently being sold in the US does not have zoom. There's a zoom-equipped model of the A5 out now in Japan, but no word of when (or if) it will come to the USA. If you want optical zoom, the DC210 is the only one of the three cameras you mentioned that has it. As the other post to this question mentioned, "digital zoom" isn't remotely equivalent to true optical zoom...

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), January 23, 1999.