Optical Zoom Digital Camera

By Ryanita

4x Optical Zoom Digital CameraOptical Digital Camera Zoom – What’s the Difference?
Most mid-priced digital cameras have an incorporated 3x/4x lens. These numbers refer to optical and digital zoom. Anyway, in digital cameras here are two types of zoom, an optical and a digital one. Optical zoom is the one similar to the zoom of a traditional camera.

Digital zoom, on the other hand, simulates zooming by blowing up a selected part of the picture. Optical zoom is much more important in a digital camera and it should be the one used as a criterion when comparing different models instead of digital or total zoom.

The quality of a digital camera is more dependent on optical zoom. At most it can refer to the fact that a camera has both types of  zoom functions, digital and optical. Traditional cameras like 35 mm or APS only had optical zoom. Optical zoom uses an incorporated lens to bring the image closer to the photographer.

Professionals associate digital zoom with digital video cameras. This type of zoom avoids interpolation and thus maintains the quality of the image.

People sometimes compare optical zoom to resolution when they purchase a digital camera.

Digital verses Optical Zoom

Manufacturers are claiming a zoom function called digital zoom, or they are adding up the total zoom of there optical zoom and digital zoom for a total zoom function.

What is Optical Zoom?

Optical zoom is what I like to call true zoom. This function of a camera uses the lens within the camera to draw the image closer. When using optical zoom quality remains the same and the full resolution of the camera can be used on the zoomed image.

What is Digital Zoom?

Digital zoom on the other hand is not a true form of a zoom function. The idea behind digital zoom is that it takes a portion of the image and expand that image to the full size of the image.

Why use Digital Zoom?

So why would you ever want a digital zoom? One final reason for digital zoom is that you may be able to see what the subject is doing through the camera a little easier while looking at the screen through digital camera zoom. Unfortunately with digital zoom, what you see on the screen is usually a little better quality than the final image.

I thought you might be interested in this article : Canon Digital Cameras And Nikon Digital Camera

Related Posts