What you need to know about the zoom on your digital camera

There are a lot of great advantages to digital cameras, and the zoom feature can be a great part of digital cameras, if you know how to use it correctly.If you are looking into buying a digital camera, or if you are trying to figure out how to use the one you have, there are a couple things you need to know about the zoom on your digital camera.Here are a couple of those important things:

1. Digital zoom vs. Optical zoom:There are often two types of zoom features which are available on digital cameras.The optical zoom is the most popular type of zoom feature on a digital camera.This is the zoom where the actual lens of the camera moves forward in order to bring the subject matter of the picture closer.Digital zoom is a feature which is an invention of digital cameras, and it is found in all digital cameras.Digital zoom uses technology to bring crop a picture and then bring it back to normal size.This often causes the picture to appear blurry and have an overall lower quality.It is important to know that the highest quality images will be found when you use the optical zoom.It is easier to take a further away picture and then crop it yourself (with a photo manipulation program like Photoshop), then trying to use the digital zoom to close in on your subject.However, if you don't know how to use a program like Photoshop, you might prefer to just use the digital camera zoom for convenience.If you print photos that are generally no larger than 4" x 6" photographs, then digital zoom might by alright for you to use.But, if you do care about your image quality though, you should always try to use the optical zoom.It is best to look for a digital camera which warns you about the low quality of digital zoom, and will give you the option of turning off the digital zoom.
2. Digital Zoom 3X:You often will see digital cameras advertising that they have 3X digital zoom.This is a nice feature, but you should realize that you can have 3X zoom (and really, you can zoom in more than that if you want) with any type of image editing, or photo manipulating, program.
3. Total zoom:Many camera manufacturing companies are starting to advertise their cameras as having "total zoom."This means that the camera has optical and digital zoom options.
4. Optical zoom and Image resolution: You should not try to compare the optical zoom feature together with image resolution.These are two different types of features.If you are concerned about the quality of your pictures, it is better to look into a digital camera which has a higher megapixel count.If you are going to consistently be taking pictures with the optical zoom, then you should look into a camera which has a good zoom instead (like 2X or 3X zoom).
5. Smart Zoom:First introduced to the market by Sony, the Smart Zoom is a type of digital zoom which helps to maintain the photo quality with a digital zoom.Essentially, the Smart Zoom does not interfere with the actual image in the photo; instead, the Smart Zoom meshes with the actual size of the photograph.Sometimes this type of zoom is called the "ethical digital zoom."However, you need to know that you need to pick the image size to be smaller than the actual full-image size that's available.If you don't do this, then the Smart Zoom will not work!