Seeking advice on SLR, lenses, and general information

Hi all,

I'm an amateur photographer. I usually take outdoor photos of architecture, people, and nature using a Fujifilm Finepix S5000.

I've been reading around about DSLR, and it sounds pretty sweet. Fast startup times and "instant" shooting sounds ideal.

In terms of how I use my camera, I like to point-and-shoot, especially for shooting people. I often just walk around the streets and capture people as I see fit. If it looks like a good shot, I just raise my camera, point, and shoot. I wouldn't call any of these action shots, but they're very spur-of-the-moment shots. I always use the auto settings. I've never tried any manual stuff.

One thing I also tend to rely on and make use of is zoom. I specifically bought this camera because of its 10x optical zoom.

I know next to nothing about lenses. From doing a bit of reading, I guess there are zoom lenses, but am I right to assume that non-zoom lenses produce better pictures?

And for that matter, how much "zoom" does a still lens produce? Is there a way to tell based on a lens' specs? I don't know what the millimetre sizes mean, nor anything about f-floating numbers.

So, I guess an DSLR body sounds right for me, but I'm concerned with the whole lens ordeal. Is there a lens that is "zoomed in" as much as a 10x optical? Or better yet, even more than that? As I can't always get in too close to my subjects, I'd rather have a longer fixed zoom than a shorter one. 10x zoom was just the best in a digital camera I could find at the the time.

And if there is a lens that would suit my needs, what camera would you recommend? I was looking at flickr's camera finder and the models shown there seem to be fairly popular, especially having read that other members of this board use them.

So, if you would please enlighten me regarding lenses, zoom, millimetres, the "f" system, and/or DSLR bodies, I'd greatly appreciate it; thanks in advance. Oh, and feel free to ask me to clarify anything!

as an FYI, the 10x zoom relates to 38-380mm on a FF camera, or 24-238 on a Canon crop DSLR (XT, XTi, D20, D30, etc). while the DSLR will definitely have faster startup/shutter speeds, those are kind of secondary to the main benefit of tailoring lenses to suit your needs. the easiest way to see what kind of zoom is to see where you shoot most of your photographs... just a couple things, though:

1) this will get very, very expensive. to get a decent lens in the longer focal lengths that you're looking for will be at least $500, in addition to the 500-1000 you'll spend on a camera body.
2) there's no way you can be inconspicuous with a DSLR, especially if you're after the zoom lengths listed above. those zooms, while they take fantastic pictures, are at the very least 2x as big as your current zoom, and quite possibly a decent deal bigger (and white for the Canon L zooms like the 70-200mm).

as for your overall questions, this place is a good start: click here

and lastly, read up on the reviews both here and fredmiranda.com, and check out dpreview.com for pro reviews.

:)

Just about the biggest lens range you can find nowadays is either 18-200 (tamron, nikon) or 28-300 (Canon), both around 11x. These lenses won't be as good as specific wide/normal/tele zooms, and certainly not as good as primes. But I've heard good stuff about the 18-200 Nikon. Also, these lenses usually do cost quite a lot (>$800?).

Why not a 70-300 for 300 or probably better on ebay. Equals at least a 105-450 depending on sensor and should make being inconspicuous not too big a challenge.
Or if you want to spend 900 go for the sigma 50-500 which according to reports can be hand held in good light up to 400mm.
I'm not an expert but that's what I'd be looking at.
Primes will give better pics but zooms are more versatile for framing your subject at variable distance.