On 29 Oct 2000 14:31:13 GMT, da_net wrote:

> Why all Sony, JVC digital camcorders have optical zoom
>only 10 (maaaaaaaaximum 12), while *many*
>cheapy non-digital camcorders have up to 25 ?

If you rate lenses solely by their zoom ratios, you
will be choosing the worst optical samples...
The very best lens in terms of resolution, contrast,
speed, and freedom from linear distortion, ghosting,
flare, focus-shift with zooming, sharpness shift with
focus, etc. is most likely a zoom lens with a ratio
of 1 (in other words, a non-zoom, fixed-FL lens).
As zooming ratios increase, design problems increase,
and more performance-limiting compromises are accepted
in the design unless the price is allowed to rise a lot
(and even then, the zoom lens will generally not be as
good as a non-zoom...). In the low-end consumer-market,
low-res formats sell on features like long-range zoom
lenses (and the viewer suffers, but is considered not
very critical of image quality... ;-); in the higher
end of the consumer market, image quality is more of a
"feature", and the lenses are often better.