What is the zoom in the camera? Choose the best Zoom

Choosing and buying a camera is a difficult and important task: not only do you need to take into account all the desired functions and characteristics of the device, it is also necessary to find such a device in a suitable price category. The most important mistake of the buyer is an unquestioning assumption of the words of the consultant of the trading floor. As you know, the main task of managers is to increase sales. For good advertising of the product marketers go to various tricks, for example, in the description for the device, a huge value of zoom is indicated, and which zoom (optical or digital) does not indicate, hoping for the incompetence of the buyer. To avoid all this and to choose the optimal device, it is worthwhile to learn in advance everything about the zoom function and the variety of zoom.

What is zoom?

Zoom - this is a special parameter of the objective of the photographic instrument, allowing to change the scale, thereby increasing the remote objects. With its help you can shoot stars from a distance, zoom and take pictures of flowers in the window on the 9th floor, even though you can test military equipment and launch missiles without any mental and physical harm.

The zoom depends on the value of the focal length. FP is the length of a segment from the middle of the lens to the matrix, i.e., the focusing point. It is customary to mark it on a lens in millimeters, for example, a pair of figures of 5.8-24 mm: the first digit 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 PD by the number of short ones, we get the value of the zoom equal to four.

Digital zoom

Now that we know what a zoom is, we need to understand its main varieties: digital and optical. Some cameras combine both types.

Digital zoom, when compared with optical, is a kind of fiction, because by its application it is possible to obtain only a digital processing product, and not a really qualitatively approximate object in the photo. Scaling is done by stretching the program of the central part of the photo to the limits until it reaches the size of the original frame.

If the multiplicity of the digital zoom is large, the image can be enlarged with less quality loss, if it is small, then the quality is lost irrevocably with the increase. The already filled microfragments can not be improved qualitatively, so that such images grow strongly pixelated.

Nevertheless, one can not say unambiguously that using a digital zoom, one can obtain only an image of poor quality, because the methodology of digital processing does not stand still, but improves constantly. In comparison with devices literally 7 years ago, the current processing programs of cameras are able to significantly increase the images, and this is done so qualitatively that the stretching is almost imperceptible.

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

Optical zoom

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

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

Superzoom - record multiplicity zoom

At the present time, an optical 10-fold zoom can be surprised only by an 80-year-old grandmother. Progress 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 long jump in the generation. Indeed, what is digital zoom, in comparison with an optical superzoom? Compacts with such a zoom for unsurpassed quality photos have already managed to make a tangible competition to bulky sets of mirrors and countless lenses that professional photographers drag in their sweat for all photo shoots. Naturally, many of the specific "gadgets" of high-end photo equipment will not replace such super-zoom compartments, 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 constant removal / putting on in order to find the most suitable in a particular photo shoot, so that it prevents the dust from getting onto the matrix.

Zoom is also present in video cameras. The most progressive option in this case will be a superzoom with manual zoom. Even though the video camera with zoom is not a novelty now, nevertheless the presence of such a function in the device is a significant bonus.

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