I have a Canon S3 IS with 12X Zoom and it’s pretty impressive so 15X must be something. I recall taking a picture of the river down at the bottom of Grand Canyon (just to test it out) from up at the top.
As a dad of ball-players I find the Video Capture to be priceless. No more dorking with firewire, recording to PC. I use it do swing clips, and compare the kids to MLBers, and with this model I can capture at 60 FPS or 30 FPS and it just records to a high speed SD card.
Actually I have a clip from a trip up to the Big A, to see my Indians. Here is a clip of Victor Martinez poking a hit I am sitting in this clip at the top of the bleachers just above where the bullpens are located, so I had to be sitting at 380-400 feet without a tripod (better stability with a tripod):
