What is zoom in a camera? Choosing the best Zoom

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Choosing and buying a camera is not an easy and responsible business: not only do you need to take into account all the desired functions and characteristics of the device, you also need to find such a device in a suitable price category. The most important mistake of the buyer is unquestioning reliance on the words of the sales floor consultant. As you know, the main task of managers is to increase sales. For good product advertising, marketers use various tricks, for example, they indicate a huge zoom value in the description of the device, and they don’t indicate which zoom (optical or digital), hoping for the incompetence of the buyer. To avoid all this and choose the best device, it is worth knowing in advance everything about the zoom function and the types of zoom.

What is zoom?

Zoom (zoom) is a special parameter of the camera lens that allows you to change the zoom, thereby increasing distant objects. With it, you can shoot stars from afar, zoom in and photograph even the flowers in the window on the 9th floor, even the testing of military equipment and the departure of shells without any mental and physical harm.

Zoom depends on the value of the focal length. FR is the length of the segmentfrom the middle of the lens to the matrix, i.e. the focus point. It is customary to mark it on the lens in millimeters, for example, a pair of numbers 5, 8-24 mm: the first number is the FR at the short end, and the second digit is the FR at the long end. If we divide the number of long FR by the number of short, we get a zoom value of four.

Digital zoom

Now that we know what zoom is, it's worth understanding its main varieties: digital and optical. Some cameras combine both types.

Digital zoom, when compared with optical zoom, is a kind of fiction, because through its use you can only get a digital processing product, and not a really high-quality approximate object in the photo. Scaling occurs by stretching the program of the central part of the photo until it reaches the size of the original frame.

If the digital zoom ratio is large, the image can be enlarged with less loss of quality, if it is small, then the quality is lost irrevocably when magnified. Already filled micro-slices cannot be improved qualitatively, so such images are heavily pixelated when enlarged.

However, it is impossible to say unequivocally that using digital zoom, you can only get an image of poor quality, because the methodology of digital processing does not stand still, but is constantly improving. Compared to devices literally 7 years ago, current camera processing programs are able to significantly enlarge images, and this is done so efficiently thatthe stretch is almost imperceptible.

If this zoom definitely does not satisfy your requirements, you can always either turn it off or change its value in the settings.

Optical zoom

Such a zoom is an increase in the image by using an eyepiece. By reducing the viewing angle, i.e., the focal length, the object in the photo is approached. The main advantage of optical zoom over digital zoom is the fact that when you zoom in, the pixel distance does not decrease, so the photo quality does not deteriorate.

The range of focal lengths can be seen directly on the lens. Naturally, when choosing a camera with an optical zoom, the highest possible value is preferable, especially since the industry does not stand still, literally "stamping" more and more advanced devices.

Superzooms - the champions of zoom ratio

At the present time, only an 80-year-old grandmother can be surprised with an optical 10x zoom. Progress is on the face, and the current generation is already free to enjoy compact cameras equipped with a 50x zoom. This is assessed not just as a breakthrough, but as a whole leap, a generation-long leap. Indeed, what is digital zoom compared to optical superzoom? Compacts with such a zoom in terms of unsurpassed photo quality have already managed to compete with bulky sets of DSLRs and countless lenses that professional photographers drag to all photo shoots. Naturally, many of the specificThese superzoom compacts cannot replace the “bells and whistles” of highly functional photographic equipment, but in terms of mobility and ergonomics they give them a head start.

Due to the fact that the compacts already have a powerful zoom, the lens of such a camera does not need to be constantly removed / put on in order to find the most suitable one in a particular photo shoot, so this prevents dust from entering the matrix.

Zoom is also present in video cameras. The most progressive option in this case would be superzoom with manual zoom. Even though a zoom camcorder is not a novelty these days, having such a function in a device is a significant bonus.

Thus, it is best to choose a device with an optical zoom or a compact with a superzoom. You already know what digital zoom is and what quality photo enlargement is. Zoom should not be the main reason for buying a device, it is better to buy a good camera that provides for the possibility of changing optics. In this case, if the desire or urgent need to have a high-power zoom completely overwhelms you, you can always buy a suitable lens.