ZoOom ZoooM ZOOom

Zooom!~ No, I am not singing Mazda's ad song (tho catchy). Hi guys, been really busy here lately, Photokina is almost here and you know... new models of cameras flying everywhere. today, I am going to keep it short and hopefully sweet. ZOOM! Zoom is the ability that your camera has to enlarge or close in on an object. It is also one of the key aspects you should consider when shopping for a camera. Now, it use to be easy to rate zoom ability before digital cameras were invented. Back then, zoom meant the ability of the optic lenses in your camera to close in on an object. But with digital cameras, a new concept was invented. thats the digital zoom! The digital zoom is a completely different method compared to optical zoom. Digital zoom simply means the image taken by the camera will be magnified via software. Now, combining what we learned about megapixel in my previous entry, that means your are taking a picture of lower resolution (megapixel count) to compensate for increased magnification! Therefore, when comparing between cameras, if you are deadlock between picking from two equally attractive choices, the one with the higher OPTICAL ZOOM ratio can be your deciding factor!

Note: Now, I am not saying digital zoom is bad, infact, all digital camera have it as a feature. But digital zoom is something you can achieve yourself at home after the picture is taken via software (ie. Photoshop). But Optical zoom is something you can only get from well designed and engineered optics, and it does not compromise on your pixel counts at all!