what is the difference btween digital and optical zoom?

[bunnymkc]

Thank you for your answer. it made it a littler clearer for me. my confusion was re 8 pixels with a 3x soom vs 5 with a 10x zoom.

 

[Charade]

Thank you for your answer. it made it a littler clearer for me. my confusion was re 8 pixels with a 3x soom vs 5 with a 10x zoom.

All else being equal, I would choose the 5mp 10x camera over the 3x 8mp camera. But I would like it to have "anti-shake" or image stabilization (same thing, different naming).

 

[manning]

A 10x optical zoom would by far be sharper than a 10x digital zoom.

 

[lynndeeloonurse]

I am looking for a new digital camera with a good zoom. I was at my daughters 5th grade graduation yesterday and was sitting 3 rows back from the stage and tried to get a some what close up of my daughter with my canon power shot A590, in the view finder it was real blurry. I think the camera only has a 4x zoom?? I would like a camera that can take good zoom pictures. Any suggestions????? I love my Canon A590 except for the small zoom.

 

[MICKEY88]

optical zoom is done with the lens, digital zoom, basically enlarges the image digitally thru the onboard computer so to speak, it's best to go with optical zoom, digital zoom degrades the picture...

so it's better to use optical zoom and if neccessary crop and enlarge with your PC..

for the most part to get good pictures of such events... in School auditoriums, a DSLR is necessary..

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Many people just shut the digital zoom off. Optical zoom in far more important (the X number).

If you don't want to get a dSLR, and don't mind something fairly big, then take a look at the Canon S5 IS. You still might not be able to get great indoor shots, but the zoom is fantastic @ 12X.

If you want something smaller than that, look for something that still has decent optical zoom.

 

[drcandon]

Basically even in point and shoot - digital bad - optical good - turn off digitral if you can.

There is a long winded explanation of how digital zoom works in a camera, but it kinda boils down to putting something into a photo you don't have in the first place or at least you don't have enough of...

xxxx://www.tfpsoft.com/fun/digitalcameraguide/digitalversusopticalzoom.html.

Is a good explanation..

Look at this this way...

photographers who are into DSLR's further spend around a thousand extra dollars on a program called Adobe Photoshop - agruably the best..this program plus a 2 or 3 thousand dollar computer can give you acceptable digital zoom results when there is not an optical way to accomplish what you need to do...sooo it is kinda unreasonable to expect a little pocket camera to do a really good digital zoom...

 

[GrillMouster]

As already explained optical zoom is "true" zoom, in that it's done with the lens. Digital zoom is basically the camera's onboard computer cropping and "uprez-ing" the image. Optical zoom is always better than digital zoom. The question is whether digital zoom is better than cropping in the computer post-capture.

For the most part, I avoid using digital zoom. However, a slight amount of digital zoom does not noticeably decrease image quality, especially in normal viewing conditions (on-screen or 4x6 prints). IN fact, sometimes SLIGHT digital zoom can actually be superior to cropping post-capture. It's hard to believe, but it's true. For example, when using auto exposure, if you take a picture, then crop later on a computer, the exposure was based on the entire original scene, including areas you want to crop out. By zooming in, the camera can meter more accurately for your desired framing. It's true that you could also adjust exposure in post-processing, but that's an additional work you might not want to bother with if the picture will only be viewed on a screen or on a 4x6 print. Furthermore, increasing exposure in post-processing can increase noise and re-saving a jpg could further degrade image quality.

So, in summary, I normally don't use digital zoom, but there have been one or two times in the past several years that I have used it for a quick snapshot, and even then, I only used a LITTLE bit of digital zoom.

 

[MICKEY88]

IN fact, sometimes SLIGHT digital zoom can actually be superior to cropping post-capture. It's hard to believe, but it's true. For example, when using auto exposure, if you take a picture, then crop later on a computer, the exposure was based on the entire original scene, including areas you want to crop out. By zooming in, the camera can meter more accurately for your desired framing. It's true that you could also adjust exposure in post-processing, but that's an additional work you might not want to bother with if the picture will only be viewed on a screen or on a 4x6 print. Furthermore, increasing exposure in post-processing can increase noise and re-saving a jpg could further degrade image quality.

So, in summary, I normally don't use digital zoom, but there have been one or two times in the past several years that I have used it for a quick snapshot, and even then, I only used a LITTLE bit of digital zoom.

if you spot meter for the part of the picture you plan on keeping exposure wouldn't be an issue when cropping with pc,, actually I've never had it be an issue even when using other metering, it should only be an issue in a very high contrast scene, and then you would definitely want to spot meter,

 

[miami]

as it was explained to me, the optical zoom is done with the lens. The digital zoom just "blows up" the pixels.

 

[GrillMouster]

if you spot meter for the part of the picture you plan on keeping exposure wouldn't be an issue when cropping with pc...

You are correct. However, not every point and shoot camera (and for that matter, not every entry-level DSLR) have spot metering. And even if they did, spot metering from a wider angle might still yield a different reading than matrix/evaluative metering from the zoomed-in scene. For experienced photographers like you and me, this is a minor problem, because we know about bracketing, exposure compensation, manual settings, and post-processing. My original explanation on the acceptable use of digital zoom really applied to your average snapshooter (99% of the public), not photography buffs.

 

[Spinning]

is equal to what in lenses? Currently my camera has a 10x optical zoom. I am looking at DSL and what a lense that is at least the same or more......
I was in Ritz last night and they couldn't tell me......They kept comparing it to a 35 MM lenses....

 

[AndrewWG]

is equal to what in lenses? Currently my camera has a 10x optical zoom. I am looking at DSL and what a lense that is at least the same or more......
I was in Ritz last night and they couldn't tell me......They kept comparing it to a 35 MM lenses....

It is hard to compare this to a DSLR lens of any sort as you need to find out where it starts. Whatever it's widest angle is, times 10. For example, if the lens has it's widest angle set to 35mm, then the total zoom would be comparable to a 35-350mm lens. If it is 28mm, it would be 28-280mm, etc.

Also, from what I have experienced, if you go to Ritz, they know nothing of the items that they sell. They just sell. I try to avoid them unless I know EXACTLY what I want, and then I find that they generally don't carry it anyways.

 

[Spinning]

Thank you that I can understand!

 

[seashoreCM]

If you get a certain view zoomed all the way out, then imagine that view divided into a 10x10 grid of equal sized rectangles. 10x optical zoom has a field of view equal to one of those rectangles (occupying the entire frame).

The most common standard of expressing the field of view is in terms of the focal length of a lens on a 35mm film camera. The real focal length for a digital camera is much less for the same field of view. The typical point and shoot (most digitals too) has a standard angle of 35 to 38mm in 35mm film camera equivalents. 28mm is considered wide angle The traditional angle of view on SLR's is 50mm with 38mm being wide althougn some SLR's nowadays also use 35 to 38mm as the standard angle.

Digital camera hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/digicam.htm

 

[mabas9395]

Many times the fine print in the back of the manual will tell you something called "35mm equivalents" which can then be used to compare it to other cameras.

For example, one popular PnS camera is the Canon S5 IS. If you look on the specifications tab of the official web page (about the 5th line down), it tells you that even though it is a 12x, its has a 35mm film equivalent of 36mm-432mm (and 36 times 12 equal 432, which is where the 12x comes from). http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c...ategoryid=144&modelid=15207#ModelTechSpecsAct