Digital Envisions

Digital cameras usually have a zoom capability built into them and better digital cameras have two zoom facilities. These are called optical zoom and digital zoom. The two ways of zooming operate in different ways and the novice frequently finds the difference confusing. In this piece, we will examine the two kinds and discuss the benefits or otherwise of them.

The first thing to comprehend is that the optical zoom is a physical product. It is similar to using a telescope. The lens really moves and makes the photograph seem nearer.

It magnifies the picture without decreasing the quality of that photo. It is the same mechanism that you used to get on expensive 35 mm SLR cameras.

The optical zoom is the zoom that you want for your camera and the more powerful the zoom the better. The power of the optical zoom is normally expressed as a number such as ‘x5′. If you have a costly digital SLR (DSLR) or digital single-lens reflex camera, you will be able to swap the standard lens for a telephoto lens and have far more optical zoom – at a price. Additional lenses are expensive, but far better.

A digital zoom is a totally different idea. A digital zoom is an electrical enhancement and is similar to holding a powerful magnifying glass over a developed, printed photograph.

Test it with a newspaper photograph, the results are pretty disappointing. However, the things that determine how well digital zoom works are: resolution and strength of zoom.

The higher the resolution of the photograph, which is measured in megapixels, the more digital zoom you can apply to the picture without losing too much photograph quality.

Digital zoom can be applied on board the camera or later in a picture manipulation program, unlike optical zoom which can only be done through the camera’s lens.

Some camera manufacturers attempt to blur the difference between these zoom functions by quoting ‘total zoom. Total zoom may be x10, which sounds fantastic until you wade through the instruction manual to find out that the camera has x8 digital zoom and x2 optical zoom. Do not trust total zoom figures without being able to break them down into the component types.

In fact, it is best to turn digital zoom off, because it is frequently an automatic extension to optical zoom. So, for instance, you are applying zoom to a shot, but if you accidentally pass the OZ capabilities of your camera, it will apply DZ and that could spoil your photograph.

Turning DZ off does not mean that you can’t use it. Digital cameras come with picture manipulation software, so if you would like to use DZ, load your pictures into the computer program and improve them from there.

The capabilities accessible within the program are far better than those on board the camera anyway and you can keep the original image as well

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