Optical Vs. Digital Zoom Camera Choices

What is the difference between Optical Digital Zoom Camera options?

Great Deals on Optical Digital Zoom Camera Lenses from Nikon Canon Fujifilm Sony and many more.  The trend for Digital Camera manufacturers to label their compact digital camera with the total overall zoom (a combination of Optical Digital Zoom) is leading to many buyers of Compact Digital Cameras to become confused about the difference between optical digital zoom camera and why it makes any difference to the quality of the images taken with digital cameras.

Put simply, Optical Digital Zoom Camera definitions are as follows:

Optical Zoom Definition

Optical zoom uses the optics of the lens of the camera to bring the subject closer. It magnifies the image using the natural source light and the movement of the digital camera lens elements.

Digital Zoom Definition

Digital Zoom uses a digital enlargement of the image. By doing so, it takes the original optical version of an image and blows it up to appear larger. The loss of image quality is then smoothed over with the digital camera software making a best guess to fill in the gaps between the megapixels.

Put another way, imagine taking a digital image and cropping a section, then enlarging the cropped section to the full size of the original. You are going to get a reduction in quality.

So what does this mean when buying a compact digital camera?

When you are looking to compare optical digital zoom on a camera, don’t be fooled by the digital zoom. Hey, great to have but it should not be the prime determining factor. Look for the compact numbers.  Digital camera with the highest optical zoom for your budget and then seek to compare the digital zoom component.

You can always crop and enlarge an image taken with optical zoom on your compact digital camera and create the same effect of digital zoom (which really only means digital enlargement, the essential difference between optical dogital zoom camera options), except with your software on the PC you can decide exactly how much of the image you want to crop and be more specific.

When you are comparing compact digital cameras, always use optical zoom (not digital zoom) as a basis of comparing before digital zoom on digital cameras. The total zoom number is really just a marketing gimmick. Go for a higher optical zoom on your compact digital camera!