Optical zoom in digital cameras means what?

Question

A digital camera's optical zoom is specified in terms of 10X or
20 X and so on.
What does 20X mean in quantitative terms?

Answer 1

The optical zoom on a digital camera means the magnitute of zoom. If you were to take a picture with no lense, that would be 1X optical zoom. now if you fix curvature of the lense, you can focus the camera lense to appear a degree clearer from the same distance. Most hand held digital cameras have 3X optical zoom. That means it is 2 degree's clearer, or 3 times better. You most likely won't find a small camera with a large optical zoom rating since the zoom is improve by extending the barrel of the lense.

Answer 2

Digital Camera 20x Optical Zoom

Answer 3

Optical zoom IS what you want. Digital zoom IS NOT worth anything!

Digital zoom is the same you computer does when you zoom in on the screen -- it will result in a very pixellated image.

Optical zoom is exactly what it says. It uses the optics of the lens or lenses to zoom in on the subject. The camera sees this zoomed image and the digital image is saved as you see it.

With either zoom the bigger the number, the closer you zoom in to the subject. The more you zoom with an optical lens the shakier the image will become, so use of a tripod is highly recommended for more than a 2-3x.

A 4x zoom might mean that it is equivalent to a conventional film camera with a 40-165 zoom lens (but the actual equivalence will depend on the basic lens of the camera).

Let me repeat: DO NOT USE THE DIGITAL ZOOM. It is a worthless feature that some manufacturers or sales people use to hype the camera's ability. It has no value in photography.

Answer 4

There are 2 ways of getting zoom in digital camera

1) via lenses. By a suitable lens and moving the elements you obtain the zoom. This is a better way of zooming an object. Gets higher quality

2) Digital zoom
With high megapixel camera you can use only the midportion of the image like cropping the picture. This can be acived in the photo shop as well. So no use of the digital zoom. If you have a suitable software you can get that done.

Go far the optical zoom. Now a days I have seen as high as 12

Answer 5

Optical Zoom works on a multiplication of distance.
A zoom lens with focal lengths ranging from 100 mm to 400 mm may be described as a "4x" zoom.

Digital Zoom works on the resizing of a picture. 2x is Doubling in size of image and cropping.

Optical zoom is always important, digital zoom is unimportant and most people disable it.

Answer 6

Zoom lenses are sometimes described by the ratio of their longest and shortest focal lengths. For example, a zoom lens with focal lengths ranging from 100 mm to 400 mm may be described as a "4x" zoom. The term hyperzoom is used to advertise zoom lenses with unconventionally large focal length factors, typically more than 4x and ranging up to 10x (e.g. 35 mm to 350 mm)

Answer 7

It means you are using the lens of the moveable on camera to zoom in, or out, thus making the image larger or smaller. This preferred to the digital zoom, which is an inferior method for enlarging/shrinking an image.

Answer 8

It's crap. It doesn't actualy 'zoom'; it takes 1/4 the picture making you think it's actualy zooming in on the cell, but when you put it on your computer, it's tiny. Take normal pictures not zoomed ones.

Answer 9

magnification of 20 by optical lens working together physically,
NOT digital magnification electronically

Answer 10

its the optical resolution available when combined with teh zoom lens characteristics. my E500 olympus goes from 17.5mm to 45mm, so you can work it out.