newbie question, zoom lens

[nirvana84]

hi i was just wondering, my compact camera has a 10x optical zoom, giving it a 28-280 mm range, i have just brought an olympus E-510 with the twin kit lens, to get anything near the zoom of my compact i will need to buy a 70-300 mm lens, which looking around local photography stores will set me back $600 australian, more than what my compact costs, and the lens is big and heavy. just wondering how my panasonic can pack 10x optical zoom into a compact? im guessing it has something to do with the aperture? can anybody recomend a good zoom lens for my E-510?

sorry for being naive, i am pretty new to digital photography and only brought my d-slr a few days ago.

thanks

Craig

[deckcadet]

It has to do with sensor size. Any Digital SLR has a significantly larger sensor than your compact. The 28-280mm listed for your compact is an equivalent field of view range on 35mm film. depth of field and the actual focal length are significantly different. Being able to use a much smaller focal length means a smaller lens is possible.

Since the E-510's 4/3 sensor has a 2x field of view crop, you would only need 140mm maximum focal length to get the same field of view, and you'd likely have a significant edge in terms of image quality, lens quality, and control of depth of field.