Digital Camera Help - What Is The Difference Between Optical And Digital Zoom?

What is the difference between optical and digital zoom?

Optical zoom on a digital camera works the same way a regular 35mm camera’s zoom works, the lens physically moves in and out using the optics (lens) to bring the subject closer without sacrificing quality. These moving lenses allows a range in optical magnification that runs anywhere from 2.0x to 10.0x. The higher the optical zoom on a camera, the farther away you can be to take a photograph and still get a clear, close image.

Digital zoom is a software simulation of optical zoom using no moving parts. Simply put, the camera crops the picture and enlarges it, filling in the extra pixels by guessing what the picture may look like in a process called interpolation. This results in a loss of quality, and is no different than cropping and enlarging an image with editing software. Instead of using the digital zoom on your digital camera you can use editing software on your computer and have more control over cropping and enlarging the picture.

Many new models of digital cameras are advertising having both optical and digital zoom capabilities. Most of these cameras have a feature that automatically uses digital zoom when you have exceeded the optical zoom limitations. You may choose to disable or shut this feature off so that you know exactly what kind of quality picture you are taking.

Digital Camera Help - What Is Focal Length?

What is focal length?

Focal length is the measurement of an in focus object to the lens. A super wide-angle lens has the shortest focal length and a super telephoto lens has the longest focal length, see below for view ranges of focal length of different lenses.

Less than 20mm - Super Wide Angle Lens
24mm - 35mm - Wide Angle Lens
50mm - Normal Lens
80mm - 300mm - Telephoto Lens
More than 300mm - Super Telephoto Lens

Digital Camera Help - What Is Depth Of Field?

Depth of field (sometimes abbreviated DOF) is a term which refers to the distance between the nearest and farthest objects which remain "sharp" (in focus) in a photograph.

Digital Camera Batteries Help

Tips for using batteries in your digital camera:

• Batteries are discharged even when not being used, for this reason it is recommended to charge the batteries just before using them.
• Do not mix new and used batteries.
• The battery is not water-resistant; do not expose the battery to water.
• Battery performance decreases and the battery life is shortened in lower temperatures.
• Using the flash and zoom a lot will use up the battery life quicker.
• If the poles of the batteries or the terminal of the camera becomes dirty the battery life will be shortened. Clean the battery poles and camera terminals with a dry, clean cloth.

More digital camera accessories help and tips to come!

Digital Camera Help

Thank you for visiting my new digital camera help blog, I hope to help anyone with digital camera questions with videos, articles, tips and more! Please feel free to ask questions in the comment field about digital cameras and accessories.