2006-11-22 11:32:39 · 17 answers · asked by scoots 1 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Cameras
Optical zoom, ignore digital. A mixture of the two is fine but it is still the optical element that provides a quality zoomed image.
What is optical zoom?
Optical zoom lenses physically extend to magnify your subject. A motor controls the lens movement. When you press the switch to "W" or "T," the subject is either magnified or reduced in size. The "W" stands for "wide-angle" (reduce). The "T" stands for "telephoto" (magnify).
What is digital zoom?
Digital zoom crops your image and magnifies the result of the cropping. This magnification process is called interpolation. To make the cropped area bigger, digital zoom makes up, or interpolates, pixels to add to the image, which may give less than satisfactory results. For your purpose, digital zoom is not really zoom, in the strictest definition of the term. What digital zoom does is enlarge a portion of the image, thus 'simulating' optical zoom.
Using the digital zoom allows you to get closer to your subject when you want to be discreet about taking pictures, like at a graduation or a religious ceremony. Sacrificing image quality to capture the moment is more important than not getting the picture at all.
I usually recommend buying a digital camera with at least 3 megapixels resolution because of the better image quality. A 2x optical zoom is disappointing, but not necessarily a show-stopper. A 3x optical zoom is standard with most consumer digital cameras. Some ultra-compact digital cameras may be able to provide only 2x optical zoom. I never bother to check how much digital zoom a camera provides, and ignore the marketing hype surrounding it. I always disable digital zoom in camera, choosing to do my own cropping and enlarging in image editing software.
Optical vs. digital zoom? There is no contest. Only optical zoom matters when selecting a digital camera.
2006-11-22 22:16:25 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
Digital Zoom is just the camera making the picture it takes bigger after it's taken. There's no zoom at all. It's more like if you take an icon and resize it in photoshop to fill the whole monitor. Horrible, horrible thing to do. Optical zoom is the only kind of zoom worth mentioning. Optical zoom increases the size of the objects in the photo. The larger amount of megapixels mean that in post-processing, you can trim off more of the photo you don't want and so what you want to be in the photo will take up more of the photo. This is not the same thing as digital zoom because digital zoom doesn't give you the control, it just shrinks the resolution to spread out the picture. Open an image in photoshop and change the size from '100%' to '400%'. That's digital zoom.
2016-05-22 19:33:26 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go for a camera with a good optical zoom & ignore the digital aspect, as using the digital zoom will only degrade the picture quality.
2006-11-22 11:46:30 · answer #3 · answered by Mr Crusty 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Optical! Just ignore digital zoom, it's worthless. Optical zoom uses the lens to change the magnification of the image.
Digital zoom just magnifies the center of the image, basically, reducing the number of pixels in the photograph, and thus reducing the photo's resolution and sharpness.
2006-11-22 11:42:05 · answer #4 · answered by cool_breeze_2444 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Optical zoom is real and hence quality is like the real photo. Digital reduces the quality and can be done using software on a computer. Always look for a high optical zoom.
2006-11-22 11:39:07 · answer #5 · answered by Laura D 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
optical zoom because digital zoom only enlarges a scene which looks like blocks. optical zoom shows a better view of a picture without flaws
2006-11-22 12:33:15 · answer #6 · answered by jkchen1114 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A: Optical zoom = the zoom from the lens.
ROTFL: digital zoom is a scam ...
2006-11-22 12:51:32 · answer #7 · answered by dand370 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Essentially the differences are similar to looking through binoculars at a real scene and looking through them at a picture of the scene. The real scene will still have the same clarity (optical zoom), but the picture will start to get a bit blocky (like digital zoom - you are making the pixels larger).
2006-11-22 22:21:20 · answer #8 · answered by dumberthangeorgebush 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Digital zoom doesn't really mean anything meaningful to you the photographer. Optical zoom is what you see with your eyes...the only judge
2006-11-22 21:27:27 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Digital zoom just makes your pixells larger. Those pixels are square. The larger you go the blockier it looks. Proffesional cameras utilize optical zooms.
If you plan to blow your pictures up more than 4x6 on your computer , and print them out, you probably want a camera with more than 4 megapixells.
2006-11-22 11:49:17 · answer #10 · answered by cabbiinc 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋