How good does the 10x zoom on a digital camera do?

Question

I am looking to buy a digital camera with a 10x zoom (Kodax) is the zoom worth it or are the pictures hard to come out clear with a digital camera zoomed in that tight.

Answer 1

I have read your previous answers and I believe you could still use a little clarification.

First of all lets talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages of a 10x zoom.

advantages: If you wish to take a picture of a distant object with some detail a zoom is a must. Such objects might include birds, butterflies, dragonflies, sailboats, etc.

disadvantages: using a lens with a long vocal length (lots of zoom) magnifies camera shake. This can be compensated for by using a tripot, very fast sutter speed, and image stabilization.

In my opinion digital zoom is a marketing gimick that should be totally ignored. It is worthless to say the least. Optical zoom has some value.

I assume that you are referring to the Kodak Z650.

It has a focal length from 38mm to 380mm. It does not have image stabilization. Therefore at 380mm a tripod might be necessary under less than bright sun light.

Enclosed is a review for you to read of this camera. It is best to be able to judge for yourself.

An option that this camera does not have is image stabilization that can prove of benefit using long focal length. It tends to reduce blurring due to camera shake.

The Kodak Z612 has this feature.

The 2nd link is to a review of the z612

Answer 2

The first two answers are total rubbish.
There are many factors to take into consideration.
Firstly do you mean 10x digital zoom or 10x optical zoom.
With optical zoom it means the magnification that the lens will give without being digitally enhanced.
Digital zoom uses software to enhance the magnification.
In effect digital zooms degrade image quality badly and is not usually worth using.
The whole digital industry knows that people are very gullible and tend to push "big numbers" at people in order to sell their products.
10x zoom or 10x digital zoom has no meaning whatsoever. It is misleading to say that.
You need to know what focal length lens is in the camera in the first place.
So if your camera has a 25mm to 100 mm optical zoom lens then the magnification is 4x (divide the higher number by the lower number).
If, as you are asking, the Kodak has a 10x zoom lens then it is the lower number you multiply by 10 to get the magnification.
As I said though the magnifications means nothing unless you know the focal length of the lens and most makes of cameras are very different.
To use the lens at it's maximum magnification you will need a tripod or get the shutter speed up very high.
To explain the amount of blur, if when holding the camera at the shortest magnification the end of the lens is moving, say 2mm, because you are shaking, then at 10x magnification the end of the lens will be moving 20mm which means you will get a blurred image because of camera/lens shake.
One way to help is to buy a camera with an image stabilised lens.

Answer 3

A few things:

1. Kodak makes inferior products. Don't waste your money on that crap.

2. The amount of optical zoom on your camera doesn't much matter. You want your lens to have a short enough focal length (ie you can zoom out) that you can still take relatively wide angle pictures when you want to. It should have a long enough focal length (ie you can zoom in) that you can get the closeups you want. And that's it, as far as considering the zoom on the lens. A lens that can zoom in using optics has the same clarity zoomed in or zoomed out. It's the digital zoom that effects the quality of the picture. Digital zoom works the same as if you blew the picture up to a large size and then cropped it to the part you were interested in. The picture would lose fidelity if you did that. However, on a 6, 7, 8 megapixel camera and above, you have PLENTY of resolution in the picture. Much more than you could notice the difference on a normal sized picture. You could easily use come of that for digital zoom and not notice any difference. I wouldn't rely on digital as my main zoom method. But certainly, when I use the digital zoom function on my 10 megapixel camera to triple the already significant optical zoom for an ultra close up, I hardly notice any change in fidelity on a normal size photo. The class of cameras that offer 10x zoom are talking about optical zoom and allow you to double that to 20x using a digital zoom. There will be zero loss of fidelity using only the optical zoom and you won't even notice any loss of fidelity if you add in the digital zoom, provided you get one of the current models that are 6 megapixels.

3. So, which one should you get? Easy. Sony currently makes the best camera in this class, the DSC-H5 camera. It costs a little more than the Kodak. But the optics on this camera are far superior, and it is a 7 megapixel instead of a 6 megapixel. It even has the best (largest with highest resolution) screen on the back of the camera.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/sony/dsc_h5-review/
http://dcresource.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=17744371

Answer 4

You have not mentioned whether it is digital zoom or optical zoom. If 10x is optical zoom, it is very good. Optical zoom is used to bring the object closer to you. This is very useful while taking photos of birds etc. After taking the photograph, using digital zoom, you can make the photo bigger on the screen and watch it. This is possible on camera screen as well as on PC screen. Now, I hope you have understood the difference of optical and digital zoom. Cameras with 3x optical zoom are available aplenty in the market. Normally 10x optical zoom is available in professional cameras and in handycams.

Answer 5

You have to examine more features than the zoom. One thing to look at is whether the zoom is optical or digital. If it is digital- your pictures will be lower quality whenever you use the zoom. Another thing to look at is whether or not it has image stabilization- there are many different ways that cameras achieve this, but a camera with some sort of image stabilization will take clearer telephoto shots than a camera without it.

Answer 6

That's a decent camera. 10X optical is pretty good. Digital zoom is an irrelevent marketing gimmick.

Answer 7

well, it has its good points...and bad too
The pictures are very difficult to take , if you keep on moving the camera. The camera must be very still to be able to take pictures clearly of 10x!
Btw, why do u need it?

Answer 8

Mine works fine. Olympus.

Answer 9

Not too good. 20X is the best.