Canon Zoom Lens

While professional photographers may want to purchase a suite of prime lenses to lock in clarity and remove any chance of distortion at extremely short or terribly long distances, the average home user or even semi pro user can probably get away with a decent Canon zoom lens. By going with an all-purpose zoom, you don't have to stock up on five or six different $300 lenses to take high-grade photographs.

A zoom lens typically offers a range of focal lengths. Using what's calling a ring or a slide, you can adjust your zoom to precise focal lengths. The wide-angle lengths--which are usually less than 35mms--give you close-up resolution. The telephoto lengths give you a focal field of 70 plus mm--and allow you to isolate distant objects with a high degree of clarity.

Bear in mind that, while Canon digital cameras are made with some of the finest DIGIC image processors available and come equipped with high megapixel resolutions, you may lose a lot by zooming in too closely on an image. Be sure to look not just at the megapixel capacity of your Canon model but also at the sensor, which helps the camera process the information taken in through the aperture. Otherwise, your zoom could yield a bunch of impressionistic, extremely blurry images.

Case in point, consider the Canon PowerShot SD-400. With a resolution of five megapixels, this camera is ostensibly a more powerful unit than its smaller cousin, the PowerShot SD-300, which can only offer four megapixel resolution. However, the SD-400 only employs a CCD sensor, and thus it creates more blurry shots than the SD-300 does, even though the SD-400's zoom can take in more information.