Short of digital SLR's are there any digital cameras you'd recommend that havemanual zoom rings.

Minolta 7i's, A1's or A2's......if you can find one.

Hi Jack

The Panasonic FZ30 has a 12x optical (35-420mm equivalent in 35mm) zoom operated by a manual zoom ring. Some time ago I started a forum topic on the considerable capabilities of this camera. If you are interested, see:

http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/v...=23&page=1

Hope this is of use

Regards

Tony

Take a look at the new Kodak P712, new faster auto focus and capure times, auto or manual focus.

Wow, today seems like an R1's day to me...

Yeah, the SONY Cyber-Shot DSC-R1 with it's best quality C.Z. Vario Sonnar *T (Fully coated)glass opticshas the best manual focus ring around IMO. But that camera is in a different league.

Fuji S9000/9500 also has manual zoom ring, but no indication (except on zoom ring) of actual focal length. There is a moving bar in the viewfinder, but nothing do reveal the actual focal length being used. FL does get saved with EXIF data though, so you can see later what focal length you used.

There are a lot more cam's with manual zooms than I'd ever guessed. Most of them are pretty big. It'd be cool if someone would come out with a compact model with the manual zoom ring.