Best camera for optical zoom

[jarhead]

What would you guys suggest for a good all around camera with some serious optical zoom? I know that the digital slr's can have their lenses replaced and switched out, but are there any point and shoots that have some awesome optical zoom?

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Panasonic have two such lineups.. the bigger FZ-15/20 and the smaller FZ-4/5. The bigger version offers more manual features as well as a brighter lens to help you take photos in low light. They both come with gyroscopic motors in the lens to reduce camera shake at long focal lengths.

Another option which I quite like is the Konica-Minolta Z series. The Z3 is surprisingly faster than the Z5 in operation. However they don't come with any form of stabalisation.

There's a Canon S2 IS coming up, that's another super zoom camera you might want to check out as well. The previous S1 is a bit slow, and the low light AF is terrible.

[Bob12]

The new Canon S2 (5mp) mentioned above has a 12x optical zoom. Canon's PowerShot Pro 1 (8mp) has a 7x optical zoom.

[groan]

I just picked up the S2 IS yesterday and with the 12x optical zoom and 48x digital, it is spectacular.
the features are great,
has a 2 speed zoom (slow for fine zooming and fast for 'get to the other end' zooms)
FAST focus with a good low-light focus assist lamp (first time i've seen a green lamp)
excellent exposure (i had the Nikon 5000 before this and it was all over the map due to poor body design)
Nice weight
works on AA batteries (i cant attest to the battery life yet, as i havent had it long enough)
Very good macro modes
and MORE!

anyways, as a replacement for my Nikon, i am very pleased.