Canon Powershot SX210 IS

Compact digital cameras used to come with a standard 3x optical zoom. If you wanted to get a closer shot of anything, you either had to move or buy a much bigger camera with a larger zoom.

With Canon's new Powershot SX210 IS, you get a massive 14x optical zoom that will put you right next to the action. Even better is that the lens actually retracts all the way into the body, delivering a 28mm wide-angle perspective.

The downside of such a big lens is the aperture is limited to F3.1-F5.9, which means you'll need a flash if you want to shoot in dim light.

The camera gives you 14.2 megapixel still images, as well as 1,280 x 720-pixel video recording at 30 frames per second, even while zooming in or out of the scene. And like most models today, the Powershot also comes with a 7.62cm widescreen display.

There are of course many additional features, such as face and smile detection, scene selection, and even a function that allows you to take a photo by winking at the camera.

It can be used with the new SDXC memory card format for extra capacity as well as standard SDHC cards.