Digital or Optical Zoom. Whats the Difference?

Zoom is a wonderful camera feature that can give different perspetives to the final image. But most people don't know the difference betweeen optical and digital zoom. The difference is actually important and affects how your final image will look. Every camera has sensors beheind the lens that records light and colors coming into the camera. When you use an optical zoom, the lens actually magnifies the image that will be recorded on the sensor. If the lens works okay, this will not be a problem because if the camera has 5 megapixels, the enlarged or shrunk image will be recorded with all of the 5 megapixels. When the digital zoom is used, the pixels that are already recorded in the sensors are enlarged. Lets say you frame the orignal image. Then you zoom in closer by 50%. What the digital zoom does is crop half the image and will only use half the pixels. The pixel that are cropped out of the frame will not be used. So the digital zoom will increase the size of the image, but will only use half the pixels. The result is a less detailed picture. To sum things up, it is better to use the optical zoom because you will not lose the details of the image when it it zoomed in or enlared.
I hope this helps. Feel free to leave a comment if you like. Click here For more info on digital photography
Or click here for wedding photography