What's the difference between optical and digital zoom?

Claire Billegas: There is 1 type of optical zoom and 2 of digital zoomThe only good zoom is an optical zoom, this is the moving of the glass pieces in the lens! This is the best quality you can get. Digital zoom has two methods but both work on taking a small bit of the actual optical image: Cropping Zoom: You can zoom further then your Optical zoom but it is like removing parts of the picture on your computer. You zoom deeper in and cut away pixels! This doesn't damages image qualityUpscaling Zoom: And this is the devil is disquise it allows you to zoom further in BUT it will re-imagine the pixels you just lost and try to make a "Full Size" image. Sadly this usually becomes a blurry unsharp mess! So really in the end Optical Zoom is the only true zoom. A cropping zoom is not terrible either as at least nothing is done to lower the quality of the images. But an upscaling zoom... NEVER use those!Really in the end one needs to look through the camera and think for themself! if the specific range of the lens suits you. I mean 4x optical zoom can mean 4-16mm as much as 50-200mm. And that is a HUGE difference in how the picture looks. what you desire of a fixed lens camera with zoom is going a bit width and a bit zoom. So something like Effective [based upon conversations to 35mm aka Full Frame] 28 to .. somewhere above 100 orso If you have a super mega zoom you can get them doing 24 till something crazy as 620mm. Now that is a HUGE range! Still remember Optical Zoom is the Only True Zoom! The rest is just digital tricks!...Show more

Dionna Doyel: Optical zoom is by changing the focul length and digital zoom is like enlarging the picture using your Computer.Let me explain..While optical zoom gives you clearer images, digital zoom will give smudgy picture. For example, If you look at a physical photo print using a huge magnification lens, the clarity will be lesser. This is what a digital zoom does. It simply magnifies the view but optical ! zoom is like viewing through a telescope or through a binoculo! r. It gives you an image as if you are looking at it from a lesser distance.4x optical zoom camera is good for household use. But when you say 4x digital zoom that will make the picture sizes smaller than the one without using digital zoom....Show more