I remember when I was a wee lad and the first thing I would compare with camcorders would be the digital zoom factor. "Wow! Look how close I can get with this one." I used to say. As I grew older I realized digital zoom doesn't mean squat since it enlarges the pixels creating a wiggly blob. Well Samsung has introduced their VM-DC560 which sports an amazing 26x optical zoom. That's right, no blurry globby mess-o-pixels here. This low-end DVD cam would be perfect for the amateur nature videographer, birdwatchers especially. No word on pricing or availability but I expect low-budget peeping toms will rejoice.

(via Engadget)