What is OPTICAL ZOOM AND DIGITAL ZOOM?

What is OPTICAL ZOOM AND DIGITAL ZOOM?

You’ll encounter some confusion when buying a camera. The specs will boast high zoom capabilities, but often it doesn’t mean what you think it means. Digital cameras can zoom in two ways – with an optical zoom and a digital zoom.
THE OPTICAL ZOOM lens will actually move you closer to a distant subject, letting you take as complete an image from far away as from close range. So whether the Corbett tiger is right next to your safari jeep or hidden behind those trees at the edge of the forest, your image will have the same quality. Think of the optical zoom as a telescope – it takes you closer to the distant object.
DIGITAL ZOOM, on the other hand, works more like a microscope. The camera will see a panoramic image, let you crop into the section you want and magnify that area to fit the whole frame. You lose quality this way, since you’re not looking at a whole image, just a blown-up part of it. So if you’re likely to take distance shots, a high optical zoom is what you should be looking for. If not, digital zoom is perfectly fine for closeups of the birthday cake, the college gang and the family holiday.