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Difference Between Optical and Digital Zoom |
Both optical zoom and digital zoom are means to magnify an image, but they work in different ways.
Optical zoom will always yield a far superior image than digital zoom.
How does optical zoom work?
A digital camera that offers optical zoom works the same way as a zoom lens on a traditional camera.
A traditional lens works by collecting light rays and projecting them onto a piece of film,
or in the case of a digital camera, onto the sensor.
Unlike a fixed lens, a zoom lens has several moveable glass elements inside.
By adjusting these elements, the focal length of the lens can be changed.
Adjusting the focal length both changes the view distance and reduces the field of view,
causing the projected image to appear larger.
In a digital camera with optical zoom, the same number of pixels are captured when the image is magnified.
The only thing that changes is which rays of light are projected onto the sensor to form those pixels.
How does digital zoom work?
Unlike optical zoom, digital zoom works by scaling up the pixels in the final
image after it is captured. This is very similar to cropping and resizing your picture in PhotoShop.
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