8 part series
By Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal
PART 5
CAMCORDER BASICS – OPTICAL AND DIGITAL ZOOM
Zooming on your video camera is fun for most video enthusiasts. It’s also a very useful function that gives you the ability to get a variety of shots from lone location. There are two ways to zoom a modern video camera.
Optical zoom
Digital zoom
There is a HUGE difference.
Optical Zoom – Optical zoom is just that…optical. An optical zoom lens works by using movement of the multiple glass elements that are inside of the zoom lens.
How much zoom you have is expressed in multipliers. A camcorder with a 10x zoom can bring a distant object about two times closer than a camera with a 5x zoom. A “long†zoom lens allows you to “zoom in†on objects that are far away so they appear close.
Optical Zoom and digital zoom are two different ways to zoom. Optical zoom gives you a much higher quality picture than digital zoom. What’s the difference? Digital zoom really just magnifies pixels. Digital zoom is much like cropping the picture in an editing program. You lose resolution because a smaller number of pixels make up the picture. With optical zoom, you do not lose resolution and the quality of the individual lens elements determines your quality. A cheap zoom lens will always look a touch fuzzy on full zoom but it will still get you that close-up without getting in someone’s face and being rude.
Although sales people at the big box stores will swear digital zoom is awesome, it’s really not. Optical zoom should be considered when buying a camera but digital zoom isn’t a feature worth using except in very dire circumstances.
Home model camcorders generally come with a 10x optical zoom. That’s enough to get a decent close-up of somebody across the street.
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