Is that a Telescope in your Pocket?

One of the things I end up doing at the start of every new year is to spend some time cleaning up my Photo Directories, and preparing a new directory for the new years' shots. Lately I have also worked to track what cameras I have used each year. This has been a little more intense this year as my T2i has had a non-working LCD screen since a photo shoot at a drought affected state park in late summer. I say non-working because the glass is perfectly fine and the backlight turns on. Just not image on the screen. My photos still turn out fine, but I don't have as much flexibility as I should have.

In any case, this has been important as I have a pretty strict budget for next year, and I don't see myself buying a lot of camera equipment if I still want to get a tablet. So I have been looking at some of my older photos to see what I can and can't live with, and to see what my "best" move for 2012 might be.

All of this is a somewhat long prelude to the post title. I have sent the T2i in for repairs as I'm fairly certain that will be $200 or less, and based on the reviews I've read, the IQ for the next generation T3i is actually a little worse. So the question then was whether I should get a walking around lens for the T2i (18-270mm Tamron most likely - but at a cost of $800), or buy one of the recent Super Zoom cameras like the Panasonic FZ series used to feature.

In doing so, I was surprised to see just how good the new $400 Canon SX40HS photos are with an amazing 35x zoom. Even at full zoom I wouldn't have a hard time comparing them to the Panasonic cameras I used to carry. But it gets better. You can get a Canon filter adapter and add a 2X Telephoto adapter on the end. Which translates to a 70x full zoom. In other words, with the default zoom on the SX40HS you can get decent images of a full moon or partial moon (some examples at http://forums.dpreview.com/galleries/40471416/photos/1652505/IMG_0557z%20t-a and http://forums.dpreview.com/galleries/4028029546/photos/1597047/IMG_0256_m_c). With the 2x you should be able to start imaging lunar features. Some folks have also reported being able to get pictures of the 4 large moons of Jupiter (trick is to get them when they aren't too close to the planet and it blows out the moons from the exposure difference). Hence you really are carrying the equivalent of a Telescope with you. Add in the fact that you can take super macro shots... and it was easy enough to convince myself that I am better carrying two cameras than one in this case both for cost AND reach.

Just wanted to share in case any of y'all are trying to make a similar decision :-)