The facts of zooming
Zooming is often seen as a great tool which could actually make
a camcorder more expensive and valuable. Many times, we think a
camcorder with a powerful zoom is much better than other which
does not offer such characteristic, but not always this is such
a great quality as we would think.
Many times, when we use our camcorder zoom, we loose image
quality. Zooming increases the image size by amplifying pixels
which actually causes the subject to loose resolution and
quality. The more you zoom in, the more pixels become amplified
and the more image quality you loose.
This way, whenever possible, it is always highly recommendable
to actually approach the subject you wish to zoom in instead of
using this camera feature in order to avoid loosing quality.
Therefore, whenever possible you should try to avoid zooming
and, instead of it, simply walk closer. Whether you are using an
analog camcorder or a digital one, by moving closer to your
subject you would maintain your video or image quality in a much
higher level than if you used the zoom.
Digital zooming can be evaluated depending on the optical zoom
level. According to the optical zoom a digital camera has,
zooming in with it would allow you to have a good or a not so
good image resolution and quality. The more powerful an optical
zoom is, the less resolution you would loose. This way, if you
wish to acquire a digital camera which would allow you to zoom
in by loosing the less amount of quality possible you should pay
attention to its optical zoom more than to the digital zoom
itself.
Digital zoom numbers do not really tell much of a digital camera
zooming quality. Actually, digital zooming has no limit; it is
possible to create digital cameras which offer a digital zooming
as powerful as they wish. The digital camera feature which
allows us to measure its zooming quality is the optical zoom,
and it is recommendable to pay attention to that characteristic
rather than to the digital zoom numbers before acquiring a new
digital camera.