As you shop this Friday, and the rest of the holiday season, here’s something to keep in mind if you are camera shopping. This can be for a digital camera or a digital camcorder.
Many companies will advertise a huge zoom number on there camera. Maybe 10x zoom (actually not that big these days) or 15x zoom, or in the case of a camcorder 100x zoom. In most cases this is digital zoom, and not what I would call a true zoom. Some cameras only have digital zoom.
Most cameras have a true zoom, or optical zoom, of 3-4x, and camcorder can go higher (I just bought one with 32x). More expensive cameras can have 10-12x optical zoom.
So, what’s the difference?
In simplest terms, optical zoom is a true zoom that you would get on a nondigital camera. The zoom is made using the lens, not the camera software.
A digital zoom uses the camera software and is similar to zooming in on a picture using Photoshop or iPhoto or any other graphics program. The more you zoom in the lower the quality will get. Cameras with a high megapixel will have a better result with digital zoom, but I don’t recommend it. In fact, I never use it on my camera.
I know it is more technical than that, but that is the easy way to explain it.
So when you are shopping for cameras tomorrow, or this holiday season, don’t be taken by advertisements boasting about huge zooms on a camera. The odds are that it is a digital zoom, especially if the deal is too good to be true. You can easily get a nice, name brand, digital camera with 3-4x optical zoom for about $100.
Happy holidays, and happy shopping!
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