Optical Zoom/Digital Zoom what the hell is the difference?

[Nerd]

Is optical zoom better then the digital? I see it mostly on digi cams, and mini dvd camcorders. Can someone explain this to me? Thanks!

 

[PliotronX]

Optical zoom is hella better than digital zoom. Optical is zoom in the lenses, while digital zoom is done in the camera's hardware, and all it does is "blow up" the image and filter the surrounding pixels, resulting in grainy/blurred imaging. To see what it's like, if you have an image editor that can grow or shrink images, take any image that's fairly small, and blow it up to about 2-4 times the size. Depending on the image editor's abilities, the image will look like crap, to mega crap. Always go for better optical zoom if you can.

 

[Nerd]

Thanks, I was thinking that Optical was better.

 

[nmos]

Digital zoom = cropping.

 

[AG73]

there's no comparison. just disregard digital zoom, don't even consider it in buying a camera. only look at optical zoom, and at that go with 2x or 3x if possible. ( i have a kodak dc280 with 2x optical but wish it had 3x)

AG

 

[Gunbuster]

It's not like you can handhold a 650X digi zoom anyway

 

[crzyc]

they are all right, i never use my digital zoon, but optical almost every shot i take. wish i had more then 2x also

 

[b0mbrman]

So why would a manufacturer put digital zoom at all?

 

[Pederv]

An added feature, just because it doesn't take much to add it.
Same rules, as far as optical being better, applies to scanners also.

 

[lacunae]

digital zooms (on digital cameras) can be useful in cases where you're shooting at less than the maximum resolution of the camera (ie- 640x480 on a camera that does 1280x960 or 2048x1536) the pix still turn out fine because the camera is just cropping out the 640x480 from the middle of the frame, instead of interpolating the extra pixels -- like the digital zooms on most video cameras do (does anyone actually use the 100x or 200x zoom on theirs? fun to play with, but could it be less useful?)

that being said, go for as much optical zoom as you can afford -- both price and size-wise (tiny pocket cameras usually have smaller optical zooms)