When buying a digital camera in today's market one of the factors that you will undoubtedly be looking at the power of the zoom function. Unfortunately people who are not so experience in this field are starting to be a little mislead. 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. This however is a little unfair on the consumer as you will begin to see in this article.
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. Using the optics of the camera the image is bought forward much the same way as a magnifying glass, binoculars and other such instruments. 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 image itself doesn't actually come any closer as the optics in the camera stay the same. The way the digital zoom works is much the same way as it does on your PC at home. 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. What happens here is that the section of image that you are looking at becomes bigger, not closer. The image does look closer because it has been expanded however all that has happened is that the image quality has been reduced. There is nothing a digital camera can do that you can't do on any standard art package at home. You may as well take the picture like you would a normal camera and then alter the zoom to exactly the way you want it at home. It will be no better or worse doing it this way that it would using a digital zoom function.
Why use Digital Zoom?
So why would you ever want a digital zoom? Well there are some occasions when this may be useful. Firstly for those of you who don't like computers or are unsure about using photo editing software then the digital zoom function will enable you to get an accurate shot of the specific area you wish to photograph.
The second reason may be that you don't wish to print the pictures out. If this is the case then the digital zoom may not affect your image quality as much as a it would on a printed image. 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 zoom. Unfortunately with digital zoom, what you see on the screen is usually a little better quality than the final image.
How would you compare digital cameras
If you are comparing digital cameras in the shop or on the internet ready to make a purchase then in terms of the zoom function its only really worth looking at the optical zoom. Comparing digital zoom is a little bit of a waste of time as like I stated before you can alter the amount of digital zoom in any major art package after the photo has been taken very easily.
The only zoom to compare is optical zoom of one camera to the optical zoom of another. You will probably find a price bracket difference between the cameras with the different levels of optical zoom.You should also watch out for the manufacturers who advertise the total zoom. Although these cameras have an optical zoom function its only part of the total and you should research the camera more thoroughly to get the optical zoom value.
Stephen Orgill
Editor - http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk
Computer related articles and reviews.