It would seem that as the consumer becomes more technologically aware manufacturers rely more and more on their marketing researchers to sell products to the public. Many times these merchandising specialists stuff the product in a box covered with glossy photos, bright colors and dazzling descriptions of the product features. Unfortunately, this specific development in marketing trends usually only serves to create more confusion amongst consumers, which tends to be especially true in high tech product lines such as digital cameras.

            For those of us who have been using cameras since the time of the dinosaurs (the pre-digital age for the readers who are under 25) there was only one type of zoom and thusly no question as to what was preferred or what it did. With the advent of widespread affordable digital technology all of that changed and consumers were offered a new and exciting world of photography not commonly comprehended by most amateur photographers at the time. Along with advances in digital technology came the terms digital and optical zoom and thusly the question was raised what is digital zoom and is it better than traditional optical zoom?

How Does Optical Zoom Work?

            Unlike a fixed lens on some older low end cameras, zoom lenses usually have several lenses within a housing that can move and adjust as necessary to achieve better focal length and clarity of the target image. Optical zoom on a digital camera is pretty much the same group of devices that are found in a traditional non-digital camera as previously described. The mechanics of optical zoom lenses on digital cameras feature a group of moving lens elements within a housing that is designed to collect and focus beams of visible light onto a digital sensor that will capture the image.

How Does Digital Zoom Work?

            By definition “digital zoom” is not really zoom at all, it only sounds more advanced than the older “optical zoom” term. So, if digital zoom is not really zoom, what is it? Digital zoom simulates optical zoom by using mathematical algorithms to enlarge the pixels in the photo after the image has been captured. This internal modification of the photo can be likened to cropping and resizing the picture within the camera rather than exporting it to an external program to do so. The problem with this type of “zoom” is that it creates a serious compromise in image quality and resolution. If you have been utilizing digital zoom on your camera and have found that the images were not that great you now know why. How should this technological paradox be handled? Always use optical zoom.

How Do I Know What Features to Look For?

            When shopping for a camera you will want to compare optical zoom to optical zoom, not to digital zoom or total zoom. Optical zoom is the most important feature as far as zoom is concerned, so in short, there is no real question as to what type of zoom matters when choosing a camera – optical is the one. The manufacturers only put things such as “300x digital zoom” on a package to sound impressive and lure those who have less working knowledge of cameras into their marketing trap. Additionally, you may what to choose a camera that will warn you when you are transitioning from optical to digital zoom range – some models will even allow you to disable the digital zoom feature altogether should you wish to do so. For a novice who is not proficient in working with photo enhancement software or for those who do not have the software that is needed it may be easier to modify the photo by using digital zoom to resize and crop it internally, however, each of these functions can be performed on the photo after it has been exported from the memory device into a photo modification program without having to sacrifice image resolution or quality.