FPS vs ZOOM

[GCast]

Im buying a cam to take pics of surfers, and waves. I found a sony cam with 1.3 fps and 12x zoom, and a Olympus with 10x zoom and 2.5 fps. Does the fps greatly outweigh the better zoom? Im going to need all the range I can get.

[Photo-John]

I think image quality is more important than the frame rate. If the image quality is crap, you might just be shooting 5 crappy photos per second. So I would worry more about getting in tight and timing your photos better. Being able to anticipate and time a single photo will make you a better photographer. Get the best long zoom you can, and get a camera with optical image stabilization. Optical image stabilization will make a big difference in the number of useable photos you get. Sony, Panasonic, and Canon all have digital cameras that fit the bill. In fact, we just posted pro reviews for Panasonic and Canon super-zoom digital cameras. Here's a link to the our pro review page:

Digital Camera Pro Reviews >>

I hope this helps. Let us know if you have more questions. You might want to also check out the sports photography forum. There's at least one guy there shooting surfing and he might have more specific advice for you.