Sunday, May 29, 2011

Optical vs Digital Zoom


On consumer digital cameras, the terms optical zoom and digital zoom are common. When shopping for a digital camera, ignore the digital zoom. What you should look for is the optical zoom capability, because what is captured using optical zoom is what the lens actually sees.
Digital zoom is basically using in-camera software to enlarge the center pixels in the photo, resulting in loss of detail and sharpness.

Some digital cameras use digital zoom exclusively, because they lack an optical zoom lens. On such cameras, the photo will be at its sharpest without using the digital zoom at all.
Other digital cameras have a combination of optical and digital zoom. On such cameras, I would turn off digital zoom entirely, and use only the optical zoom. This will ensure that I get sharp photos all the time.


x 1 x 2 x 3
Optical
Zoom
zoomx1 35mm Optical vs Digital Zoom zoomx2 70mm Optical vs Digital Zoom zoomx3 105mm Optical vs Digital Zoom
Usually equivalent to a 35mm lens. Details in the photo are captured by the lens. Usually equivalent to a 70mm lens. Details in the photo are captured by the lens. Usually equivalent to a 105mm lens. Details in the photo are captured by the lens.
Digital
Zoom
zoomx1 35mm Optical vs Digital Zoom zoomx2 digital Optical vs Digital Zoom zoomx3 digital Optical vs Digital Zoom
Usually equivalent to a 35mm lens. Details in the photo are captured by the lens. Camera adds pixels to make the photo larger. Details in the photo are artifically added via software in the camera. Camera adds pixels to make the photo larger. Details in the
photo are artifically addedvia software in the camera.

34 comments:

  1. digital is still my favourite.

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  2. never knew how much better the quality was.

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  3. I don't like digital zoom at all. You can always use computer software to digitally zoom

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  4. digital zoom aint good at all

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  5. I knew it!!!
    The Optical zoom was always better!.

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  6. That's what I'm always talking about with my friends, it's better to have 3x optical than 10x digital zoom but none of them believes me :(

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  7. Most camera's have both, right? I mean, optical zoom to a certain degree, and if you want to zoom in even further, it goes to digital.

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  8. optical zoom is wayyyy better. you should always opt for optical.

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  9. I never used digital zoom. I always knew a saw a quality difference... :)

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  10. Never knew it worked like this! nice post. Like Tony above I have never used digital zoom, You cant get a high quality image with it.

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  11. Great post, this really makes a huge difference and a lot of people don't know the difference.

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  12. Reality > digitality :)

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  13. Anyone who wants to take real pictures would only go with Optical zoom

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  14. Really interesting stuff. Keep it up!

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  15. interesting but my phone is not a photo camera neither :P

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  16. I looked for optimal optical when I bought my camera.

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  17. I will always turn off digital zoom completely on any camera device I acquire. It is just a complete waste of time to even try taking a photo with it

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  18. Optical zoom is always always better, take care man! :)

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  19. I wasn't aware of this, thanks for sharing. :)

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  20. Optical always better, who wants blurry images anyways lol

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  21. You taught me something I didn't know, thanks.

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  22. Great blog! Keep the posts coming, i enjoy reading them!

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  23. i love camera's that can zoom and yet keep from being all fuzzy

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  24. I hate digital zoom and the fact that it's even advertised or people care about it >_< You never get a good shot with it.

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