A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements with the ability to vary its focal length and thus angle of view, as opposed to a fixed focal length FFL lens see prime lens. They are commonly used with still, video, motion picture cameras, projectors, some binoculars, microscopes, telescopes, and other optical instruments.

Most people who have used a 35mm camera or an APS camera are aware of only optical zoom. Digital zoom is an invention of digital video cameras. It is not uncommon to see digital videocams with 300x digital zoom. For our purpose, digital zoom is not really zoom, in the strictest definition of the term. What digital zoom does is enlarge a portion of the image, thus simulating optical zoom.

In other words, the camera crops a portion of the image and then enlarges it back to size. In so doing, you lose image quality. If youve been regularly using digital zoom and wondered why your pictures did not look that great, now you know. So, as far as digital zoom is concerned, you can do it in camera or you can do it afterwards in an image editing software. Any cropping and enlarging can be done in an image editing software, such as Photoshop.

So, when a digital camera is advertised with 3x digital zoom, no big deal. If you do it in camera, image quality is irreversibly lost. Someone in a digital camera forum once mentioned that he uses digital zoom because it might mean the difference between capturing a great shot or not at all. Umm, lets think about this a bit. True, if by zooming digitally in camera you get to see what your subject is doing and thus can capture the shot at the right moment. So, its really up to you, if you know what youre doing.

Here it is: Always use optical zoom. If you do use digital zoom, use it only if it does not appreciably impact your image quality. If you rarely print past 4x6 in. When comparing cameras, you should always use optical zoom.

There is no point in comparing digital zoom with digital zoom or optical zoom with total zoom. Always compare optical zoom with optical zoom. Resolution What about optical zoom vs. Now yall know that we cannot and should not be comparing apples n oranges, but we still try.

The megapixels resolution of a digital camera can be thought of as the number of pixels available to capture an image. With a 2 megapixels camera, you have 2 million pixels to record an image. Whether you zoom or not does not affect how many pixels are used to capture the image. So, zoomed at its maximum, a 2 megapixels 3x optical zoom digital camera will still have captured a 2 million pixels image.

Likewise, a 3 megapixels 2x optical zoom digital camera will always capture a 3 million pixels image. With a 2 megapixels digital camera, you can make good 4x6 in. With a 3 megapixels digital camera, you can make good 8x10 in. So, as far as image quality is concerned, the 3 megapixels camera is better. Unless you are always going to take pictures at max. 3MP camera is better because at 2x optical zoom and less, it is always capturing images with more detail than the 2MP camera. What we are really trying to say is this: do not compare. If the answer is both, then find a digital camera that has both. If its outside your pocketbook range, then choose a digital camera for what is more important to you. We usually recommend buying a digital camera with at least 3 megapixels resolution because of the better image quality. 3x optical zoom is standard with most consumer digital cameras. We never bother to check how much digital zoom a camera provides, and ignore the marketing hype surrounding it.

We always disable digital zoom in camera, choosing to do our own cropping and enlarging in an image editing software. Only optical zoom matters when selecting a digital camera.

Smart Zoom works only if you select an image size smaller than the full available image size. So, for example, if your digital camera is capable of producing a 5MP image, Smart Zoom is available only if you select to save your images as 4MP or less.

Say, your digital camera is 5MP and you select to save your images as 3MP. So, in effect, youve basically more or less retained the same image quality but you have to save your resulting simulated zoomed image in a smaller image size. 3MP image can be enlarged up to without image degradation. 3MP, which means that Smart Zoom is useful only in digital cameras with 4MP and above. So, our recommendation still holds. Always compare optical zoom with optical zoom. Depends on how much you want to pay and if you want profesional or consumer. 1,000 at a few places on the net. Several of these professional camcorders can be found for half the price listed on Amazon if you shop around the net. You have the storage choices of HDV, Blueray miniDV, hard drive, and flash memory.

B00159JV46 is a hybrid that has BOTH Blueray mini DVD and an internal hard drive. The kit actually comes with a lot of the things you might actually need for consumer situations. Probably the most impressive feature on this camcorder is its ability to take very good still photos. B00114162K is very popular right now. B0010LPBRK which do come in smaller more economical sizes. Canon has some of the best stabilization around, and this camera also records full 1920x1080 HD in 30p and 24p modes.

The most impressive feature is the instant focus. The camera is supposed to always be in focus or take less than a second to find and fix focus. Canon above and has an 8gb internal hard drive There are a multitude of camcorders operating on a variety of formats with an endless combination of features. Nowadays when people mention about purchasing digital cameras, they usually compare the cameras by the number of megapixels they have, for eg 7 mp to 10mp. However, megapixels are not the only quality to look out for. With that being said, one of the most important thing to look out for is the amount of optical zoom it provides. Camera specs comes with 2 types of zoom, digital and optical. In digital zoom however, the camera uses its software to digitally enlarge these images, thus compromising its photo quality. Optical zoom are very useful, and can range between 3x to 10x or even 12x. It really depends on what you need. But beware, look out for only those cameras that comes with OPTICAL image stablizer. Also, point and shoot cameras comes in many form. 200 camera will probably only have very limited manual function, functions like Aperture Priority, Shuttle Speed Priority, Programme Mode, Full Manual mode etc. If youre an amateur photographer like me, these arent usually very important, unless you want to explore around and learn to become a more professional photographer. 10MP, optical zoom around 4x to 6x, and plenty of manual functions too. Personally, I own a Canon Powershot A710 IS. It has almost full manual functions, thus giving amateur photgraphers who wants to experience manual controls to have total control over their shots.

There are various things to consider when choosing a digital camera. The more optical zoom the camera is able to provide the better. Physical Sensor Size: the larger the sensor is the less susceptible to digital noise.

Unfortunately the smaller cameras use smaller sensors. Fortunately digital noise is a big issue for photographers at all levels so camera manufacturers have developed various techniques to reduce noise. Read reviews and research the cameras you are considering. FYI, noise will be more of a problem at larger ISO numbers and in lower light situations where longer shutter speeds are needed.

Modes like portrait, landscape, macro, low light, etc.

These modes tell the camera the general conditions in which the photograph is being taken allowing it to make more appropriate decisions about the various exposure settings. More advanced photographers may want fully manual functionality as well as shutter and aperture priority modes. Shutter Lag: This is a measure of the time it takes from when you press the shutter release button until the shutter actually opens and the image is captured.

Some cameras have a long, and very annoying, shutter lag. Many newer camera have been built to eliminate as much shutter lag as possible.

If you already own several of one type of digital media it may not make sense to buy a camera and then have to buy more memory cards. An optical zoom of around 6x is good. Many cameras are available with around 3x an 4x but that, in my opinion, is just not enough. You will not likely see much improvement above that as noise and blooming start to degrade the image from smaller sensors. Optical zoom is good and digital zoom sucks. Digital zoom is really just a way to enlarge pixels and degrade the image.

Ignore it completely when you are comparing cameras. The optical zoomed image is not great, but this is taken with the same point and shoot camera as the other example.

There is no image processing at all done with any of these pictures. 3x optical zoom, or 111 mm.

4x in digital zoom, for an equivalent of 444 mm.