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1. Yes, wide-angle means a short focal length. Note that what's wide varies depending on the size of your imaging surface. E.g., 30mm would be a wideangle on a 35mm film camera, but it's about normal on an APS-C film camera or most digital SLRs because the APS-C size is smaller than the 35mm size. And for point&shoot digital cameras, which use very small sensors indeed, that would be a telephoto. However, you might hear someone talking about the "wide end" of an all-telephoto zoom lens. But it's still not a wideangle zoom.
2. Lenses with just one focal length (known as "prime" lenses) can generally be made with fewer optical distortions than zoom lenses. Less chromatic aberration, less barrel distortion, etc. Also, primes are usually a lot faster than zoom lenses that include that prime's focal length. So for the cost of a little flexibility, you can get an optically-better, fast lens for less money. "The best zoom is a fast prime and a pair of feet." 3. All other things being equal, yes, a greater zoom range means it's gonna be more expensive. However, all things are not always equal. For example, Canon's EF 16-35mm f/2.8L has a much smaller zoom range than the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, but the kit lens has a much smaller maximum aperture, is designed only to project an image over an APS-C-sized sensor, and is generally of much lower quality than the L.
4. I'd suggest a starting photographer like yourself get a smaller, cheaper camera than an SLR until you've learned enough to really make use of it. Maybe a PowerShot A630.
5. I would personally suggest going with a Canon lens for a Canon camera. Third party lenses are a lot more hit-or-miss, quality-wise, a lot more likely to have compatibility issues, and don't hold their value nearly as well.
6. http://www.google.com
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