Optical Zoom

[James Siler]

I have a question, do you scarafice megapixels if you get a camera that has a high optical zoom. I have a hard time understanding this. I have seen camera's with 12x optical zoom but low mega pixels. And others that are high on the megapixels and don't mention anything about optical zoom. I ask this cause all I could find in the archives was on video camera's. And am I correct in thinking optical zoom is better than digital. Digital just takes the image and magnifys it correct? Sorry if this has been asked before and if this is in the wrong area. Thanks. James

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

I have a question, do you scarafice megapixels if you get a camera that has a high optical zoom. I have a hard time understanding this. I have seen camera's with 12x optical zoom but low mega pixels. And others that are high on the megapixels and don't mention anything about optical zoom. I ask this cause all I could find in the archives was on video camera's. And am I correct in thinking optical zoom is better than digital. Digital just takes the image and magnifys it correct? Sorry if this has been asked before and if this is in the wrong area. Thanks. James

I'm no expert - either.
But I'm certain that optical zoom is acceptable brcause it doesn't affect pixel size - whereas digital zoom is unacceptable because it magnifies/amplifies pixel size and ends up turning images into a jagged mess.
I have a camera that does optical and digital zoom - so I turned off the digital zoom.
Glad I did - much better results by leaving it that way.
You can experiment yourself and see it.
That much I can tell you...

 

[Jason Boggs]

Optical zoom does not alter the image from what I understand. Watch out for digital zoom because like Rob said, it turns the image into a mess the more it's zoomed in.

 

[Cris Schroeder]

Big optical zooms don't drive you to lower megapixels, but they do typically require more lens elements to do it right. I think that high-megapixel sensors are more pricey than lower resolution sensors, so the camera manufacturers forego the high optical zoom to meet their price point.

My Canon G9 has a 6x optical zoom, which I consider pretty good, along with a 12 MP sensor. Unfortunately you pay for the combination.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

A simple but useful explination of the difference between Digital vs Optical zoom may be found here:

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/zoom/digital-vs-optical.html

 

[James Siler]

Thank you for everyone who answered. And for the link I like the way it explained. Now another question. Frames persecond is acutally what it says, so basically would the higher the frames per second mean getting better lighting shots in and around storms?

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Uhhh Ohhh.
You have unknowingly opened up another can of worms.
Reason?
Not all videocam's can do lightning.
More comments from those who both know and experienced this problem will be coming your way.....