Originally posted by sterretje The SX20 has a hell of a range (28-560 equivalent field of view). In terms of the sensor of the current Pentax dSLRs, you can divide that by 1.5 and end up with 18-360mm.
If you use the far tele a lot on the SX20, you need to realise that you will miss that with both the 250mm and the 300mm; you can crop afterwards to get it right but I'm personally not a big fan of that).
Also personally, I don't agree that 18mm is not wide enough; I only have had a few occasions (in the film days) that I missed a shot with 28mm because it was not wide enough. If you often had thoughts that you needed a wider lens, 16mm is the better option now.
I understand about the higher range of the SX20, however, just because it can shoot that far does not mean the shot us usable. I would say my shooting is done around the 28 - 300 marks, that said, I would like to be able to get down to 16 but even if it were 18 that would be a HUGE improvement.
Because of the sensor, I don't have the ability to get good "blurred" backgrounds and have to zoom to 200mm on the barrell, and stand roughly 6-10' from the subject and the subject has to be at least 6' from the background in order to get a decent blur... it's rather frustrating that I have to "work" so hard at getting a shot. In this life you simply don't always have time to go through all of that to get what you want.
I've attached a couple to show what I mean.