by Olan Pays
Today’s digital cameras offer two types of zoom capability: digital zoom and optical zoom. These two types of digital camera zoom often confuse the average camera buyer for no information from the buyers. So, what is the difference between these two?
Optical Zoom
The first type of digital camera zoom is optical zoom. The main idea of optical zoom essentially the same as the zoom lens on a 35 mm film (non-digital) camera. It uses the lens within the camera to draw the image closer. This type of digital camera zoom actually “moves” you closer to the subject of shooting without disturbing the focus. The optical zoom keeps the quality of the picture remains the same.
Digital Zoom
If you use the digital zoom, the image itself doesn’t actually come any closer. This type of digital camera zoom crops a portion of a captured image and then expand it to the full size of the image. The image is looking bigger but not closer. This can reduce the quality of the image and your image will become unfocused.
However, you can use this type of digital camera zoom when image quality is not important. For example, you don’t need to print the picture out and just want to upload it to the internet.
What is the most important?
If your goal is to get the high quality pictures with the high resolution, optical zoom is the type of digital camera zoom you have to pay close attention to. It will give you the quality pictures you want. Digital zoom should be used only when image quality is not important.