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In the shortest answer...An optical lens shows you the ACTUAL image using glass and mirrors...NO electronics necessary. A digital lens uses glass to project the image onto an "image sensor computer chip" and the computer chip displays it's "interpretation" of the image onto the LCD screen. That's as basic as I think I can make it. Hope it helps!
Optical zoom is the change created by focusing lenses to see further away or closer. Digital zoom is a change in the size of the digital optical reader surface used to read (see) the image. The optical reader (not the technical term) does not change size; the device (camera) just discards information that is not in our focus. In theory, this would mean a loss of resolution. Since you often do not use the resolution that the optical reader is capable of (because of limited data storage and display capabilities) this loss often does not happen, or matter to you.
It's very rare to find lenses that aren't optical, so I think you've probably talking about optical vs digital zoom, which is common. With optical zoom you move the lenses WRT each other to make the object appear closer or farther away. With digital zoom OTOH you play around with the pixels, the actual picture elements instead to make the image bigger or smaller. Digital zoom is more rugged and cheaper to build, but will eventually result in a loss of resolution.
Optical zoom is the ability of the camera lens to zoom in before capturing the picture
Digital zoom is the ability of the camera to zoom in after capturing the actual picture.
See the related link below for more information.
Optical zoom is where your camera's lens is actually moving to zoom in, digital zoom is where the digital part of the camera tries to get closer to zoom, digital zoom is basically pointless because when you use it you image quality is severely damaged.
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What is better digital zoom or optical zoom?
Optical Zoom is the true zoom, Digital is basically the zoom in of what the highest optical zoom is. Therefore Optical Zoom is the better zoom, and gives a much clearer picture.
What type of digital camera is better either with optical zoom or digital zoom?
Optical zoom is way better than digital zoom as digital only expands the picture. Optical zoom actually zooms in.
What are the advantages of using optical zoom?
If you use an optical zoom, you can take pictures without getting really close to things. An optical zoom is better than a digital zoom, because an optical zoom does not cause pictures to be pixely or grainy, and digital zooms often do.
Why is a digital zoom worse than an optical zoom?
The reason an optical zoom is better to have than a digital zoom boils down to quality. When one uses an optical zoom the subject is brought in closer without losing quality. When a digital zoom is used, the camera crops and digitally enlarges the picture, sacrificing quality.
Zoom on Cannon Poweshot?
The Cannon Powershot has both and optical and digital zoom features. Optical zoom is far superior to digital zoom.
Is 3x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom good?
3x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom are standard features on most mid-range pocket digital cameras. A better optical zoom capability would be 6x or 8x optical. The digital zoom capability can be ignored, since all it does is crop and expand your image, necessarily reducing its resolution. Digital zoom may be handy for giving you a close-up view in the viewfinder or on the viewscreen, but the photographer must remember that picture quality shot with digital zoom may be compromised. POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP U:P
What is the difference between digital and optical zoom?
Digital zoom uses software to zoom in further than regular optical zoom, which uses lenses to magnify the picture.
How much difference is there between a x50 zoom and x60 zoom on a digital camera?
You will have an image about 20% larger at x60, but there is catch. Usually magnification of that amount is a combination of the optical zoom and digital zoom. The total obtained by multiplying. With digital zoom, the quality will likely decrease faster as the magnification increases. So normally, the optical zoom will go to maximum before the digital zoom begins to operate. So if the x50 has 10x optical and then 5x digital, it could produce a better image than 6x optical with 10x digital zoom (unless the optics are not that great). It's good to know which is which. See if you can find reviews on both.
Is 160x digital zoom better than 350x digitial zoom?
350 is bigger than 160. But you should look for optical zoom. Digital zoom at even about 30x gets so blurry and horrible.
What is the average optical zoom for a camera?
I usually see anywhere from 6x to 12x optical zoom, then most digital cameras also have digital zoom, up to about 20x
What is the difference between Optical Zoom and Digital Zoom for a digital camera?
A optical zoom use the lenses to focus in on a subject, pretty much the same way binoculars work. Digital zoom magnifies the subject by enlarging in in the pic thru a digital process, this is not a true type of zoom.
What are the two types of zoom on a camcorder?
Optical and digital. With optical zoom, the camera uses lenses to magnify objects. In digital zoom, the camera's built-in software creates a magnified image.
