"Remember, the IS-3 comes bundled with a lens, too. Why Pentax chose to bundle
with such a cheeseball lens is beyond me. I was really intrigued by the camera
-- as it really was a nice camera. I imagine that quality lenses would make
this puppy shine."
The IS cameras have two major advantages over conventional SLRs. First, they
have no lens mount, slightly reducing the parts and assembly costs -- which can
then be spent elsewhere. Second, they use varifocal lenses, rather than "true"
zooms. Such lenses require refocusing as the lens changes focal length, but the
camera's microprocessor does this automatically and transparently. For a given
number of elements, a varifocal lens can be of better optical quality than a
true zoom, because it doesn't have to hold focus as you change focal length.
Companies making interchangeable-lens lens SLRs have to compete with Olympus
ZLRs on price, but don't have the economic advantages of a ZLR design. So they
have to use a lower-quality lens. QED?
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