I want to replace my SLR zoom camera with a digital, but I don't want to compromise on the zoom distance I now have -- 140. What do I need in a digital to equal this? Am I right in believing that I only need 2 mp since I never want prints larger than 5x7? Thanks.

If your have an SLR, you may want more than 2MB. Film is hard to beat for fine detail. Digital is excellent if you take hundreds of pictures without thinking or if you want to look at them on the computer. It's ok for small pictures. It's not so good for large pictures or those who want the best detail, though this may change in the years ahead.<BR><BR>Don't misunderstand, I like my 2MB digital camera.

Get a 3 meg not much more$$. What you want to look at is optical zoom. Digital zoom means nothing. I believe a 4-5x will be about the same as 140. If you go to much zoom then you will need a solid rest to prevent blurring. Go to www.dpreview they will be able to help you better there!

Most 35mm SLR &quot;objective&quot; (normal) lenses are around 50-55cm focal length. A 140mm telephoto/zoom lens is therefore around 3 times 50, or 3x. An optical zoom on a digital of 3x will be the equivalent of 150mm.<BR><BR>For photo-quality printing above 5x7 inches, you will need 3 megapixels. I've printed very sharp 8x10s with my 3mp camera, the equivalent of the 8x10s I print in my home darkroom off 35mm negatives. But, boy, is it easier and way less stinky.

140mm zoom in digicam?<BR><BR>Most of the recent digicams typically feature 3X optical zooms, equivalent to 35mm-105mm in film SLRs. <BR><BR>The Nikon 995 (3 MPixel) has a 4X zoom (35-140mm equivalent). Some of the Minoltas and Fujis have 6X-7X zooms. The Olympus 730 is up there too. These cameras are somewhat larger than pocket size (which shouldn't matter if you're used to SLRs).<BR><BR>I would take a close look at the Canon S-40 right now. It's being superseded by the S-45, so it can be had for a little over $400. You get a 3X zoom (35-105), 4 MPixels (!) and a pocket-sized camera to boot...

The Fuji S602 is 3.3Mp, and has a 6x zoom. Most digital camera zooms are also described in &quot;35mm equivalent&quot;. Pay no attention to digital or combined zoom - all they do is crop the middle of the full picture to give you a lower resolution chunk from the middle.<BR>The real number is &quot;OPTICAL ZOOM&quot;. (The Fujii 602 is 35-210mm.

I think Gary has it right. When you go to digital zoom it just knocks the resolution down--in other words, gets grainy in the old vernacular.<BR>Get a 3MP camera, nothing less. I LOVE my Olympus for many reasons. You will be happier all around with that and it is only another $50 or so right now. When we take a long trip I may drop the resolution down on pictures to extend my &quot;memory&quot; on my card. You can do that but in addition, all your pictures are more digitized at 3MP.<BR>With regard to the zoom question, you can crop on your computer to get more &quot;telephoto&quot;--and to my degree of need, it is very much &quot;in focus&quot;. In other words, I think I compensate for the lack of a long telephoto when I crop and print my pictures.