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Digital Zoom?? Why?

T

trixie

n00b
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
8
Can someone explain to me why digital camers manufactures feel the need to add this useless piece of technology?

Thank you
 
Because most of the population wouldn't understand how it works and think it is so cool when they can zoom in that far. When you use Digital Zoom you don't notice the quality loss on the LCD. Nothing better than a sales people at retail stores comparing the digital zoom on cameras and saying the one with the higher digital zoom is better, I've seen that before!

Good thing is most cameras you can turn it off, I know on my Kodak DC290, Sony F717 and Sony P200 I have it all turned off.

It really is useless because you're gaining no detail by using it.
 
When you really think about it. Most people buy a camera based on price of what they used in film. I know a ton of people that used Olympus film cameras that turned and bought Olympus digital. People that bought Kodak Film go and buy their digital.

When it comes to Zoom people are always told higher is better. I'm sitting with my Sony DSC-P1 Camera that has stamped right on it 6x Precision Digital Zoom on the side with a tiny 3x Optical zoom on the front lens.

If you're a regular consumer its not like Digital Zoom implys that its a bad thing. A vast majority of people think Digital implys better.

I mean personally I have a camera I use as Point and Shoot and it has a descent optical zoom but then I have a camera I use when I want to get serious and have a wider shooting range.

I have to say just know the difference and help others when they are buying digital cameras. Because there is no $500 camera with 120x Optical Zoom ;)
 
Because it looks good. 48x digital+optical zoom sounds much better than 12x zoom to the average consumer right?

I honestly don't know what salesmen tell people about zooms,... I've personally never talked to a salesperson in an electronics store.
 
I worked at CompUSA and it was annoying explaining people the difference between digital and optical. People kept thinking that digital meant better. This is what a honest salesman tells people, I always tried my best not to screw someone over as I wouldn't like that done to me.
 
clockworks said:
I worked at CompUSA and it was annoying explaining people the difference between digital and optical. People kept thinking that digital meant better. This is what a honest salesman tells people, I always tried my best not to screw someone over as I wouldn't like that done to me.
Click to expand...
Good job!
Digital Zoom is just great marketing for the deluded mass population. That thinks AOL is good.
 
I have to say I drove almost 100 miles to purchase a computer from CompUSA about 3 or 4 years ago, probably one of the best retail stores to buy a computer at. At least the ones in Michigan seem to have really knowledgable sales staff compared to Best Buy and Circuit City.
 
Digtal Zoom sucks my moms balls!
Its to jerky when im useing video or photo on my powershot A520!
 
Digital Zoom has it's place and it's far from a useless feature.

You just got to understand what it can do and what it cannot do. Look at it this way:

My current camera has 5MP and 12x optical zoom. Do i need the digital zoom?! Yes, under certain circumstances, i do. If you ever tried to capture an insect on a camera, you probably were VERY lucky, had a camera that costs quite a bit with a tele lens that most likely cost just as much. If you don't have this available to you, then you don't have many choices.

5MP is certainly a high enough resolution to keep 4x6 prints without jaggies, even with a little digital zoom added. My currently optical zoom of 12x all of a sudden becomes a 16x or 24x zoom. Enough to capture an insect close-up from a distance without losing much quality in 4x6 prints and without spending thousands of dollars for equipment. On top of that, since the zoom is digital, the camera does not have to refocus on the object, meaning you don't lose time, time that the insect uses to disappear suddenly.

Don't discard a feature as useless or marketing only, only because you don't see a use for it. It's the way you use it.
 
But what you have to understand is that you're losing resolution and replacing it with interpolation to keep the resolution the same. You could do the digital zoom in Photoshop!
 
benamaster said:
But what you have to understand is that you're losing resolution and replacing it with interpolation to keep the resolution the same. You could do the digital zoom in Photoshop!
Click to expand...


Of course i understand this. Of course i can do that in photoshop or any other software on my computer. That does not help you in the moment when you try shooting the picture though. Zoom in with digital to see if you really capture the detail you wanted in first place. With 4x6 prints, it absolutely and utterly won't matter if it's 5MP or 3MP in the end, since you won't see a darn difference.

BTW, I'm not trying to make digital zoom look great. It's what it is, a zoom that costs you image quality. However, it's not totally useless, even if i would never use the FULL digital zoom. But one step digital zoom is not too bad for the image in terms of quality if you have a 4MP or up camera. It also helps determining if you get the detail that you wanted without moving closer. If you then chose to not use the digital zoom and use photoshop afterwards, then more power to you. At least you have the capability in the camera to check it out and zoom back to optical without moving closer to a sensitive subject.
 
Another detail most people do not see is that at high telephoto you can not take a hand held steady shot. So even a 12x optical zoom will not look all that great without either a high shutter speed which requires a good bit of light on most point and shoots, or a tripod. Very few people use a tripod with a point and shoot camera. Vibration stablization helps ALOT here. So if you get a camera with a 6x or greater zoom make sure it has stablization tech in it.

Also even with high optical zoom range in order to get that high range of zoom the manfucator almost always has to make compromises on the image quality. This is seen even in high end optics. Most professional camera optics rarely have a zoom range of more than 3x. The latest Nikon lens the 18-200mm VR, before it came out many people where sckeptical to its quality because of its 11x zoom range. However it turns out they did a REALLY good job and makes for a decent lens. However even the people who own it say that it is not as good as a high end prime lens, but having a zoom is a convience they are willing to sacrifice for quality.

NOTE: I my above statements refer to the range of zoom and not the magnification.
 
Yeah, my FZ5 has Image stabilizer built in (IS) and it does a mighty fine job, even at 12x zoom. Not as good as a tripod, but sure helps a lot with my caffeine and cigarette shaky hands.
 
DIGITAL ZOOM SUCKS. I just turn it off on my Olympus.

Question for you guys. If someone ask what digital zoom is, what is the best/easiest way to explain this to someone who doesn't know nothing or a lot about cameras/technology.

I can usually explain it to someone but I don't sound very intelligent when I do haha.
 
iRoNeTiK said:
DIGITAL ZOOM SUCKS. I just turn it off on my Olympus.

Question for you guys. If someone ask what digital zoom is, what is the best/easiest way to explain this to someone who doesn't know nothing or a lot about cameras/technology.

I can usually explain it to someone but I don't sound very intelligent when I do haha.
Click to expand...

Tell them a 5x digital zoom turns a 5megapixel camera into a 1 megapixel camera. That is short easy for most people to understand and gets the point across that it is a bad thing.
 
If you want to see if you captured the detail in a picture then take it with no digital zoom and then go into preview mode and a vast majority of the cameras will let you zoom in and see the detail in a picture you already took!
 
Of course cpt. obvious, but by then the insect flew away from the flower. And if you didn't capture the detail, then it's too late.

(no offense, but maybe at least TRY to understand what i'm trying to say here).
 
For all of you that have problems understanding what i'm trying to communicate, read the following and look closely at the pictures posted, which are made with digital zoom

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1018&message=14391411

Digital zoom can be a tremendous help with higher MP cameras. It's the way you use it in the moment. Everyone can zoom with photoshop later, but not everyone can capture the moment of a truely great picture.
 
ScYcS said:
For all of you that have problems understanding what i'm trying to communicate, read the following and look closely at the pictures posted, which are made with digital zoom

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1018&message=14391411

Digital zoom can be a tremendous help with higher MP cameras. It's the way you use it in the moment. Everyone can zoom with photoshop later, but not everyone can capture the moment of a truely great picture.
Click to expand...

Lets try not to take this thread down the path that thread on dpreview went ;)
 
I find it one of the most usefull review sites since not many other digital camera review sites are as thorough as dpreview is.

And I never use digital zoom. When I am not using a tripod, I seldom zoom in full telephoto anyways.
 
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