Digital Camera Optical Zoom
digital camera optical zoom
Choosing Your First Digital Camera
Digital cameras are no longer a luxury these days, with high resolution mega pixels and sophisticated features coming within a very appealing price range. And thanks to many comprehensive digital camera reviews, it’s easy to pick the most sought after features and qualities and still stay within a budget.
Most people turn to digital photography because they like the ease of printing and sharing the photos on the web. Business owners choose the digital quality for their product catalogues or brochures, students employ digital cameras for their projects and with digital cameras in most recent cell phones, even a child can take a snap and publish it instantly on the web. And thanks to the newest lens and zooming qualities, you don’t have to be a seasoned pro to shoot close-to-professional images with modern digital cameras.
You can hardly find a digital camera today with resolution lower than 2 megapixels – two million color dots per picture. This is a decent quality for most uses, including printing the photos for the home or school use. The higher the megapixel rate, the bigger photos you can print without sacrificing the quality. However, if you are not a professional photographer or a graphic professional who deals with upscale images all the time, you don’t really need a digital camera that produces more than 8-megapixel camera – and these rarely become available for less than $1000. Plus, if you seek to print large detailed photos, make sure you have a high-quality printer that can reproduces all the tiny details that make a difference.
When you pick a digital camera, you should also pay attention to the zoom number. Digital cameras have two different kinds of zoom. Digital zoom enlarges all pixels digitally, while optical zoom enlarges the image with the lens magnification. Since you can always enlarge the image later, on the computer using the Photoshop or other image manipulation program, you would be better to concentrate on higher optical zoom rate. The average optical zoom for midlevel digital cameras is 2 to 4x.
There are a few other options to consider: whether a digital camera uses a rechargeable batteries (zoom and LCD screen consume a lot of energy); whether the digital camera has a standard flash memory (you may need to buy a few more flash memory cards in future), and if the menus are easy to understand. If you travel a lot, you may want a digital camera that is lightweight and compact.
Even if you decide to pick the least expensive digital camera to serve your basic photography needs, you will still enjoy all the benefits of digital photography: no film rolls to buy, no wasted photos to dispose of and best of all, no waiting time to get them printed. New models of digital cameras are constantly launched, and the older ones are becoming less expensive day by day. Know your priorities, check the most recent digital camera reviews, and there should be a digital camera to perfectly suit your needs.
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OUR WEBSITE SEARCHES for the best products on the net on weakly bases and here are the cheapest products at their category.
You can easily buy them from eBay (Safest purchase, and in most case free shipping) just click on the image and enjoy 
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GE C1033 10.1 MP/ 3X OPTICAL ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA BLACK BRAND NEW IN BOX! $44.98 |
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Sony DSCP92 Cyber-shot 5MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom $24.99 |
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SAMSUNG S860 8.1MP COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERA WITH 3X OPTICAL ZOOM – PINK $9.99 |
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PENTAX OPTIO P70 12 MP 4X WIDE ANGLE OPTICAL ZOOM 2.7″ RED DIGITAL CAMERA B $64.99 |
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Samsung TL205 12 MP Digital Camera 3x Optical Zoom, Dual LCD Screen SILVER $79.95 |
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Canon G12 10MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.8 inc $499.99 |
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15MP Digital Camera 3X Optical 4X Zoom 2.7 silver DC57 $53.99 |
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Fujifilm FinePix S2800HD 14 MP Digital Camera with 18x Wide Optical Zoom Nice! $125.99 |
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Polaroid 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom $44.99 |
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Panasonic Lumix TS20 16.1 MP TOUGH Waterproof Digital Camera w/ 4x Optical Zoom $142.51 |
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Samsung HZ15W 12.2MP 10x Optical Zoom Digital Camera $125.00 |
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3A Digital Camera, 14MP, Ultra Slim, 4x Optical Zoom, 3″ T $179.99 |
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Nikon COOLPIX S6300 16 MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom Blk&8GB Card New $179.99 |
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Fujifilm Finepix S700 7.1MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom $41.00 |
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SAMSUNG S860 8.1MP COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERA WITH 3X OPTICAL ZOOM – PINK $9.99 |
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GE Power Pro X500-BK 16 MP with 15 x Optical Zoom Digital Camera Black NEW!! $157.98 |
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Kodak Z5010 14 Megapixel 21X Optical Zoom Black Digital Camera $149.00 |
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Kodak EASYSHARE C1450 14.0 MP 5X Optical Zoom Digital Camera – White $44.99 |
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Kodak EASYSHARE C1450 14.0 MP 5X Optical Zoom Digital Camera White Perfect Works $44.99 |
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ZoomX – 16MP Digital Camera and 1080P Camcorder with 21x Optical Zoom and 3 Inch $289.99 |
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3A Digital Camera, 14MP, Ultra Slim, 4x Optical Zoom, 3″ T $159.99 |
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Kodak EasyShare M577 14 MP Digital Camera 3″ Touchscreen 5x Optical Zoom Black $119.95 |
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Canon G12 10 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom NEW $419.00 |
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Canon PowerShot SX200 IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera 12 x optical zoom Pop-up Flash $180.00
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Samsung EC-SH100 Wi-Fi Digital Camera ** 14.2 MP, 5x Optical Zoom & Touchscreen! $79.99 |
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Samsung Digimax 530 5MP 3X Optical Zoom Digital Camera 187395 $36.95 |
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”Samsung” Digital Camera PL210 14.2 MP – Indigo Blue 10x Optical Zoom 3″ LCD $85.50 |
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Supersonic IQ-8600 Digital Camcorder Camera 2″ LCD 8x Optical Zoom Flash Memory $31.99 |
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**BRAND NEW** Canon PowerShot SX150 IS 14.1 MP 12X Optical zoom Digital Camera $139.88 |
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Cobra Digital Video Camera Camcorder DVC955 4 x Optical Zoom $41.99 |
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Samsung PL210BLUE 14.2 Megapixel, 10x Optical Zoom, Digital Camera (Blue) $110.95 |
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Nikon Coolpix S8200 16 MP 14x Wide Angle Optical Zoom HD Digital Camera – Silver $246.95 |
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SAMSUNG HZ15W 12.4MP 10X OPTICAL ZOOM 720P HD DIGITAL CAMERA WITH 3″ LCD – GREY $21.50 |
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GE E1680W 16MP 8x Optical/6x Digital Zoom Camera w/HDMI $111.99 |
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GE E1680W 16MP 8x Optical/6x Digital Zoom Camera w/HDMI $136.59 |
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VIVITAR VIVICAM X327 DIGITAL CAMERA PINK 3X OPTICAL ZOOM, HD +VIDEO $30.00 |
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Canon PowerShot G2 4.1 MP 3x Optical Zoom Digital Camera G 2 4MP 195921 $50.95 |
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Sanyo VPC S1414 14.0 MP Digital Camera pink 4x Optical Zoom 5x Digital Zoom $29.99 |
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NIP FUGIFILM FINEPIX AX350 DIGITAL CAMERA KIT 16 MP 5X OPTICAL ZOOM 2.7 LCD $50.00 |
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Kodak EasyShare MX1063 10.3MP 3x Optical/5x Digital Zoom HD Camera (Red) $47.60 |
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Kodak EASYSHARE C195 14 MP Digital Camera blue 5X Optical Zoom 5X Digital Zoom $38.95 |
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USED FUJI FUJIFILM FINEPIX DIGITAL CAMERA 2650 3X OPTICAL ZOOM 2.0MP CAMERA~USED $68.99 |
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*NEW* Canon PowerShot SX120 IS 10MP Digital Camera 10X Optical Zoom + 4GB SDHC $185.72 |
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Sony Mavica MVC-FD73 0.4MP Digital Camera Floppy Disk Optical Zoom Metallic gray $19.99 |
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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P30 1.3 MP Optical Zoom Digital Camera Photo/Video – Silver. $39.99 |
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Sony Mavica MVC CD300 3.3 MP Photo/Video CD Digital Camera Optical Zoom – Silver $139.95 |
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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 MP Photo/Video Digital Camera Optical Zoom – Silver. $39.99 |
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LikeNew Canon PowerShot SX20 IS 12MP Digital Camera 20x Optical Zoom $299.95 |
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Nice Canon Powershot SX130 12MP Digital Camera 12x Optical Zoom $129.95 |
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New Openbx CyberShot DSC-H70 16MP Digital Camera – 10x optical zoom $185.95 |
Is it true that when you zoom in with a digital camera you lose quality, but use optical zoom and you won’t?
I have heard that if a camera has optical zoom and you zoom in with the optical zoom, you will NOT lose quality. True?
All digital zoom does is basically crop the image you take, this means you get a greatly reduced megapixel count, which equals a loss in quality, instead of using digital zoom, it’s better to take the image full size and simply crop the image yourself on a computer when you get home, if you want to do so.
Optical zoom uses the lenses in the camera to increase the focal length, basically this does what it says on the tin, it zooms in, just like binoculars would do (random example), and the resultant picture has the same megapixel count as it would if you had not zoomed in, therefore there is no loss in quality.
Do note though, that when you optically zoom in, camera shake will have a greater effect on the image because you’re focusing on a smaller area, and could blur the picture more noticeably (The same with digital zoom, but because of the drop in quality it would be less obvious, though to the same extent). That’s why you should go with a camera that has optical image stabilisation (Usually referred to as OIS), it will greatly reduce image blur.
EDIT to Shorty below: If you get a good quality camera (High end compact, bridge camera, or DSLR) then the barrel distortion will be very minimal, if any at all.
Fuji S8100 10MP 18X Optical Zoom Digital Camera with Fac…