Which Is Better: Optical or Digital Zoom?
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Optical Zoom Offers Quality
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Optical zoom lenses take up space. Optical zoom uses the lenses of the camera to enlarge the image being photographed. By manipulating the distance between the two primary lenses of the camera, the image that registers on the camera's film or image sensor is enlarged. Optical zoom offers higher image quality, but does so in a bulkier package.
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Digital Zoom Offers Smaller Option
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Cameras that rely on digital zoom are compact. Digital zoom is a form of image magnification introduced with digital imaging. Rather than enlarging the image that is recorded by the image sensor, it instead enlarges a portion of the image. It does this by adding pixels to the existing image, estimating what pixels are needed where through a process called interpolation. The drawback to this is the loss of image quality that occurs whenever digital zoom is used. However, digital zoom makes for a smaller, lighter camera.
Bottom Line
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Most cameras on the market today offer a combination of optical and digital zoom, with the balance weighted more toward one or the other. For snapshots and photos on the go, digital zoom does the job. For high quality images and fine control, optical zoom is the way to go.
References
- Photo Credit slr camera image by tradigi from Fotolia.com side camera image by Rich Johnson from Fotolia.com photographing image by Igor Negovelov from Fotolia.com
