For years, consumers were schooled to count mega­pixels—the measure, among other things, of how large a print you can make—when choosing a digital camera. The more megapixels, the better (and more expensive) the camera, the marketing talk goes. Now almost every model available has enough megapixels to produce everything from a framable snapshot to a Times Square billboard. And the cameras keep getting cheaper. This year, market leader Canon released an impressive 7.1-megapixel camera, the Power­Shot A550, for just $200.

Cameramakers need something to prop up prices and profits, so the new focus is on “superzoom.” Don’t get suckered. There are two kinds of zoom: digital and optical. Digital zoom uses software to essentially magnify pixels (as well as flaws); optical zoom manipulates the lens to deliver sharper, up-close images. New models offer optical zoom of 10x and up, multiples almost unheard of just a few years ago. One of the best of the new superzooms is the Olympus SP-550 UZ ($500), which has an eye-popping 18x optical zoom, perfect for catching the glint in the eye of a distant lion on the savanna. To keep wobbly hands from blurring long-zoom shots, Olympus—criticized in the past for its lack of image-stabilization technology—has added anti-shake ­features to the 7.1-megapixel camera. Not far behind in the zoom race is Sony, which offers a 15x optical zoom on its new 8.1-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-H9 ($480). It could be a photo finish.