Zoom is the ability that lens lenses have to change their own focal length in order to correct the scale of the object being photographed. The presented lens property allows you to zoom in or, conversely, zoom out of the image without shifting the camera itself in any way. To change the size of an object in a photograph, a kind of lens rearrangement is performed inside the lens. The presented permutation is responsible for zooming.
Zoom varieties
What is optical zoom? The concept implies a rearrangement of lenses in the lens. In contrast to the optical zoom, there is also a digital one. What does digital zoom mean? These are changes in the scale of the scene being shot, but without any participation of optics. We can say that this is a simple framing of the image and its digital enlargement.
In practice, the difference is felt strongly between the digital and optical zoom of the camera. This can be seen when comparing, since the optical zoom allows you to take good and high-quality photos or videos, but the digital zoom, unfortunately, forms a “noisy” and poor-quality image.
Magnification and zoom are the same thing?
In budget amateur photographic equipment, zoom ismultiplicity. For example, a 4x zoom indicates that the camera can change its own focal length by exactly 4x. In professional equipment, the magnification is not indicated, but only the minimum and maximum focal length marks are noted. Current consumer cameras often offer the user more zoom than professional cameras.
What is this ultrazoom?
Amateur technology still offers cameras with ultrazooms that produce ten- or even twenty-fold images. If you want high-quality pictures even with a strong focal zoom, then it is best to shoot with an ultrazoom in bright light or from a tripod. Now you know that this is a zoom in the camera.
What are the pros and cons of optical zoom?
Optical zoom is vital for people who want to take beautiful, crisp photos, shoot long distances and maybe print their own widescreen shots. It is worth noting that the operation of the optical zoom of the lens is indistinguishable from the operation of the optical zoom of the camera. What does this mean? The zoom brings the image closer by several times, while the exposure of the frame and its focal length are modified with each click of the zoom control button. Now there are good cameras with a twenty-fold zoom that allow you to photograph fly paws or something else without loss of quality.
Optical zoom benefits:
- Excellent sharpness, good color reproduction even at high magnification of the frame, small details are always visible, there is no blur at all.
- The resolution of photos does not change when zooming in, which is extremely important for subsequent printing of pictures in high quality.
- All photos are taken at 300 dpi. This is enough to create a great calendar, a huge stretch banner or even a poster. The quality of the photo does not change at all.
Negative moments:
- Techniques with good optical zoom are expensive. Many manufacturing companies position such cameras as professional equipment, which means that it is problematic to purchase such a camera in a regular store.
- Optical zoom is not enabled separately from digital zoom, which makes it difficult to work with equipment.
What are the pros and cons of digital zoom?
Digital zoom is a great marketing strategy for many companies because it's not really zooming in on the frame, it's stretching it out. During this, the area of the image that you want to zoom in is used, and the pixels are only stretched to the distance you need. You press the shutter and you get a blurrier, poorer quality photo than previously expected. That's right, the pixels "expanded" by the distance you specified, and this is digital zoom. Not everything is as bad as it might seem.
Benefits:
- The quality of this type of zoom is enough to make good printable photos. You will get somewhere around 72 ppi or in other words 72 pixels per inch, which is enough for a blog or social network.
- The cost of photographic equipment with such a zoom is lower than for cameras with "pumped" optics.
Negative moments:
- The quality of the photo is rather low, and for professionals, a technique with such a zoom is completely useless.
- Digital zoom, due to a good advertising campaign, costs significantly more than it should according to technical specifications.
What is the result?
When buying photographic equipment, you must be clearly aware of the purposes for which you need it. Are you going to use your own pictures as advertisements, publish them in magazines, create brochures from them, or just make money from them? Then the most good and affordable device with optical zoom is vital for you. In such cases, do not prioritize the presence of digital zoom in any case, because it is positioned as strong, which means that the optical one will be “muted”. If you need it, then check before buying if you can turn off the digital zoom and use the optical one.
Do you just need a camera to take family photos and videos? Then you do not need professional photographic equipment and you can not watch expensive devices with optical zoom, digital will be enough for you. Always pay attention to the cost of the device, look at the budget versions first, because among them there are a lot of good equipment, little "promoted" through advertising.
